Norms Of Liberty

by Rasmussen, Douglas B.

• ISBN13: 9780271027012
• ISBN10: 0271027010
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-07
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

How can we establish a political/legal order that in principle does not require the human flourishing of any person or group to be given structured preference over that of any other? Addressing this question as the central problem of political philosophy, Norms of Liberty offers a new conceptual foundation for political liberalism that takes protecting liberty, understood in terms of individual negative rights, as the primary aim of the political/legal order. Rasmussen and Den Uyl argue for construing individual rights as metanormative principles, directly tied to politics, that are used to establish the political/ legal conditions under which full moral conduct can take place. These they distinguish from normative principles, used to provide guidance for moral conduct within the ambit of normative ethics. This crucial distinction allows them to develop liberalism as a metanormative theory, not a guide for moral conduct. The moral universe need not be minimized or morality grounded in sentiment or contracts to support liberalism, they show. Rather, liberalism can be supported, and many of its internal tensions avoided, with an ethical framework of Aristotelian inspiration-one that understands human flourishing to be an objective, inclusive, individualized, agent-relative, social, and self-directed activity.

Author Biography

Douglas B. Rasmussen is Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University in New York City Douglas J. Den Uyl is Vice President of Educational Programs at Liberty Fund in Indianapolis

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
PART ONE: LIBERALISM AND THE POLITICAL ORDER
1 Liberalism in Crisis	5	(13)
2 Liberalism and Ethics	18	(24)
The Good and the Right	22	(6)
The Socialization of Ethics	28	(5)
The Metanormative Solution	33	(9)
3 Liberalism's Past and Precedents	42	(34)
The Nature of Liberalism	44	(18)
Natural Rights	62	(14)
4 Why Individual Rights? Rights as Metanormative Principles	76	(21)
The Basic Right to Liberty	76	(2)
Rights as Metanormative Principles	78	(1)
Human Flourishing—Objective but Plural	79	(2)
Human Flourishing—Profoundly Social	81	(2)
Requirements for Metanormativity	83	(1)
Justifying the Political/Legal Order	84	(2)
Human Flourishing—A Self-Directed Activity	86	(2)
Self-Direction as the Basis for Metanormativity	88	(1)
Protecting the Possibility of Self-Direction Among Others	89	(2)
Understanding Individual Rights	91	(1)
Why Individual Rights Trump	92	(2)
A Major Objection Considered	94	(3)
5 The Natural Right to Private Property	97	(18)
PART TWO: A NEW DEEP STRUCTURE FOR LIBERALISM
6 Individualistic Perfectionism Hi
A Cautionary Note and a Brief Discussion of Method and Metaphysical Context	115	(12)
An Outline of a Neo-Aristotelian Version of Perfectionist Ethics	127	(16)
1. Objective	127	(2)
2. Inclusive	129	(3)
3. Individualized	132	(2)
4. Agent-Relative	134	(4)
5. Self-Directed	138	(3)
6. Social	141	(2)
The Role of Practical Wisdom	143	(10)
7 Defending Individualistic Perfectionism	153	(31)
Universality and Agent-Relativity	153	(3)
Objectivity and Individuality	156	(2)
Agent-Neutrality and Practical Reason	158	(2)
Justice and Human Flourishing	160	(3)
Desires and Self-Direction	163	(4)
The Function Argument	167	(3)
Pluralism and Human Flourishing	170	(1)
The Role of Moral Virtue	171	(2)
Considering John Gray's Dismissal of Perfectionism	173	(11)
8 Natural Law and the Common Good	184	(22)
New and Traditional Natural Law Theory	185	(12)
Natural Law and the Common Good of the Political Community	197	(9)
9 Self-Ownership	206
PART THREE: DEFENDING LIBERALISM
10 Communitarian and Conservative Critics	225	(40)
The Challenge of Communitarianism	225	(19)
The Challenge of Pluralistic Communitarianism	244	(7)
The Challenge of Natural Law Conservatism	251	(6)
The Challenge of Eudaimonic Conservatism	257	(8)
11 The Structure of the Argument for Individual Rights	265	(19)
Individual Rights as Metanormative Principles	265	(3)
From Human Flourishing to the Natural Right to Liberty	268	(1)
Section I: Human Flourishing: Individualized and Profoundly Social	269	(2)
Section II: Liberalism's Problem	271	(2)
Section III: Finding an Ethical Basis for Metanormative Principles	273	(6)
A. Self-Perfection, Constituent Goods and Virtues, and Money	273	(2)
B. Practical Wisdom, Practical Reason, and Self-Direction	275	(2)
C. Self-Direction as the Basis for Metanormativity	277	(2)
Section IV: Individual Rights: Protecting the Possibility of Self-Direction Among Others	279	(3)
Section V: Justifying the Political/Legal Order: The Question of Legitimacy	282	(2)
12 Defending Individualistic Non-Perfectionist Politics	284	(56)
The Metanormative Dilemma	286	(2)
Once Again, Why Respect Rights?	288	(4)
Conceding Rights	292	(2)
A Worry About Neo-Aristotelianism and Rights	294	(2)
Rawls, Justice, and Metanormativity: Are There Other Metanormative Principles Than Rights?	296	(5)
Is the Concept of "Metanormative Principles" Really Necessary?	301	(2)
Making Self-Direction Possible for the Extremely Poor	303	(8)
Bonded Flourisher Argument	311	(2)
The Need for Agent-Neutral Values	313	(4)
The Absent Telos	317	(2)
Agent-Centeredness	319	(3)
The Acceptability Problem	322	(1)
Metanorms Are Biased	323	(4)
The Issue of Symbolism	327	(3)
Self-Sufficiency	330	(3)
What if Men Were Angels?	333	(5)
Conclusion	338	(2)
Epilogue: From Metanorms to Metaphysics	340	(7)
Index	347