This book develops an original and comprehensive theory of political
liberalism. It defends bold new accounts of the nature of autonomy and
individual liberty, the content of distributive justice, and the
justification for the authority of the State. The theory that emerges
integrates contemporary progressive and pluralistic liberalism into a
broadly Aristotelian intellectual tradition. The early chapters of the
book challenge the traditional conservative idea of individual
liberty—the liberty to dispose of one’s property as one
wishes—and replace it with a new one, according to which liberty is
of equal value to all persons, regardless of economic position. The
middle chapters present an original theory of socio-economic justice,
arguing that a society in which every citizen enjoys an equal share of
liberty should be the distributive goal of the State. It is argued
that this goal is incompatible with the existence of large disparities
in wealth and economic power, and that (contra conservative and
libertarian economic arguments) such disparities are harmful to the
overall health of national and global economies. The final chapters
provide an original argument that the State has both a moral duty and
a moral right to pursue this program of socio-economic justice (contra
conservative and libertarian moral arguments), and that only the
measures necessary to implement this program lie within the morally
justifiable limits on the State’s authority. Though primarily a
political work, it spans most areas of practical
philosophy—including ethical, social, and legal theory; and
meta-ethics, moral psychology, and action theory. And though
fundamentally a philosophical work, it incorporates research from a
number of fields—including decision theory, economics, political
science, and jurisprudence; primatology, neuroscience, and psychology;
and history, anthropology, sociology, and ecology—and is sure to be
of interest to a wide range of scholars and students.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9783319282770
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Springer
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter