Enlightenment Traditionalism: The Path Not Taken NOTE: In this book, I will use 'Enlightenment traditionalism' to refer to the hypothetical historical 'path not taken', and I will use 'liberal traditionalism' to refer to the path we could possibly forge in the future.
To expand our horizons, so that we can re-imagine how civilization ought to look like, I think it is useful to go back in time, to look for historical paths that could have been taken, but were ultimately not. Where should we look? As I am a Moral Libertarian, I clearly believe in the idea of equality between people, so my values clearly lie with the 'historical Left' of the French Revolution. Therefore, it would be useful to look at critical points in the development of the 'historical Left' since the time of the French Revolution.
The first major tradition that came out of the 'historical Left' of the time of the French Revolution was liberalism, which has since diverged into different traditions like libertarianism (now regarded as on the right) and social liberalism (now regarded as centre-left). Furthermore, even the conservatism that exists in the modern West, particularly in countries like America with its liberal Constitution and institutions, is partially informed by this historical liberal tradition. The liberal tradition is primarily concerned with individual liberty, 136
