Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are associated with philosophers of the Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the individual and the nation as opposed to the state and religion as being the fundamental units of law, politics and economy.
Since then liberalism broadened to include a wide range of approaches from Americans Ronald Dworkin, Richard Rorty, John Rawls and Francis Fukuyama as well as the Indian Amartya Sen and the Peruvian Hernando de Soto. Some of these people moved away from liberalism while others espoused other ideologies before turning to liberalism. There are many different views of what constitutes liberalism, and some liberals would feel that some of the people on this list were not true liberals. It is intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. Theorists whose ideas were mainly typical for one country should be listed in that country's section of liberalism worldwide. Generally only thinkers are listed whereas politicians are only listed when they also made substantial contributions to liberal theory beside their active political work.
Aristotle (Athens, 384–322 BC) is revered among political theorists for his seminal work Politics. He made invaluable contributions to liberal theory through his observations on different forms of government and the nature of man.
He begins with the idea that the best government provides an active and "happy" life for its people. Aristotle then considers six forms of government: Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Polity on one side as 'good' forms of government, and Tyranny, Oligarchy, and Democracy as 'bad' forms. Considering each in turn, Aristotle rejects Monarchy as infantilizing of citizens, Oligarchy as too profit-motivated, Tyranny as against the will of the people, Democracy as serving only to the poor, and Aristocracy (known today as Meritocracy) as ideal but ultimately impossible. Aristotle finally concludes that a polity—a combination between democracy and oligarchy, where most can vote but must choose among the rich and virtuous for governors—is the best compromise between idealism and realism.
In addition, Aristotle was a firm supporter of private property. He refuted Plato's argument for a collectivist society in which family and property are held in common: Aristotle makes the argument that when one's own son or land is rightfully one's own, one puts much more effort into cultivating that item, to the ultimate betterment of society. He references barbarian tribes of his time in which property was held in common, and the laziest of the bunch would always take away large amounts of food grown by the most diligent.
Cicero
His Stoic, Cato, advocated for Greek Stoicism in Cicero's books. It's a development of Aristotle's ethics and goes further, advocating equal rights for all people. It was found to be scientifically true on inspection in the '90s, by Becker (1998).[1] He was also a major influence to John Locke.
Laozi was a Chinese philosopher and writer, considered the founder of Taoism. Arguing that Laozi is a libertarian, James A. Dorn wrote that Laozi, like many 18th-century liberals, "argued that minimizing the role of government and letting individuals develop spontaneously would best achieve social and economic harmony."[2]
Liberal Thinkers of the Muslim Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age (8th to 14th century) was marked by a flourishing of intellectual activity in the Islamic world. Several scholars and thinkers from this era contributed to ideas that align with certain liberal principles, emphasizing reason, justice, and individual rights.
Al-Farabi, known as "the Second Teacher," was a philosopher influential in transmitting Greek philosophy to the Islamic world. His political philosophy, seen in works like The Virtuous City,[3] stressed the importance of justice and the common good in governance, influencing both Muslim and European thought.[4]
Ibn Rushd, a Spanish-Arab philosopher, advocated for the compatibility of reason and philosophy with Islamic faith. His commentaries on Aristotle and independent works promoted the separation of reason and revelation, profoundly influencing both Islamic and Western thought.[5]
Ibn Sina, a polymath known for contributions to medicine and metaphysics, delved into political philosophy. In *The Book of Healing*, he discussed the need for a well-ordered state, emphasizing the role of a philosopher-king guided by reason and wisdom.[6]
Ibn Tufail, a philosopher and physician, explored individualism and reason in Hayy ibn Yaqdhan.[7] The novel discussed a person raised in isolation, emphasizing themes of individual pursuit of knowledge.
Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence, 1469–1527), best known for his Il Principe was the founder of realist political philosophy, advocated republican government, citizen armies, protection of personal property, and restraint of government expenditure as being necessary to the liberties of a republic. He wrote extensively on the need for individual initiative—virtu—as an essential characteristic of stable government. He argued that liberty was the central good which government should protect, and that "good people" would make good laws, whereas people who had lost their virtue could maintain their liberties only with difficulty. His Discourses on Livy outlined realism as the central idea of political study and favored "Republics" over "Principalities".
Machiavelli differed from true liberal thinking however, in that he still noted the benefits of princely governance.[8] He states that republican leaders need to "act alone" if they want to reform a republic, and offers the example of Romulus, who killed his brother and co-ruler to found a great city.[9] Republics need to refer to arbitrary and violent measures if it is necessary to maintain the structure of the government, as Machiavelli says that they have to ignore thoughts of justice and fairness.[10]
Anti-statist liberals consider Machiavelli's distrust as his main message, noting his call for a strong state under a strong leader, who should use any means to establish his position, whereas liberalism is an ideology of individual freedom and voluntary choices.
Desiderius Erasmus (Netherlands, 1466–1536) was an advocate of humanism, critic of entrenched interests, irrationality and superstition. Erasmusian societies formed across Europe, to some extent in response to the turbulence of the Reformation. In his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio (1524), he analyzes the Lutheran exaggeration of the obvious limitations on human freedom.
Étienne de La Boétie (France, 1530–1563) was a French writer, magistrate and political theorist. According to Etienne the chief question of political philosophy was the question of how people come to accept the will of tyrants.
Thomas Hobbes (England, 1588–1679) theorized that government is the result of individual actions and human traits, and that it was motivated primarily by "interest", a term which would become crucial in the development of a liberal theory of government and political economy, since it is the foundation of the idea that individuals can be self-governing and self-regulating. His work Leviathan, did not advocate this viewpoint, but instead that only a strong government could restrain unchecked interest: it did, however, advance a proto-liberal position in arguing for an inalienable "right of nature," the right to defend oneself, even against the state.[citation needed] Though his own ideological position is open to debate, his work influenced Spinoza, Locke, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and many other liberals.[11]
John Locke's (England, 1632–1704) notion that a "government with the consent of the governed" and man's natural rights—life, liberty, and estate (property) as well on tolerance, as laid down in A letter concerning toleration and Two treatises of government—had an enormous influence on the development of liberalism. Locke developed a theory of property resting on the actions of individuals, rather than on descent or nobility.
Cato's Letters / John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon, 1720–1723
Charles de Montesquieu
Montesquieu
Charles de Montesquieu (France, 1689–1755) In The Spirit of Law, Montesquieu expounded the separation of powers in government and society. In government, Montesquieu encouraged division into the now standard legislative, judicial and executive branches; in society, he perceived a natural organization into king, the people and the aristocracy, with the latter playing a mediating role. "I do not write to censor that which is established in any country whatsoever," Montesquieu disclaimed in the Laws; however, he did pay special attention to what he felt was the positive example of the constitutional system in England, which in spite of its evolution toward a fusion of powers, had moderated the power of the monarch, and divided Parliament along class lines.
Montesquieu's work had a seminal impact on the American and French revolutionaries. Ironically, the least liberal element of his thought—his privileging of the aristocracy—was belied by both revolutions. Montesquieu's system came to fruition in America, a country with no aristocracy; in France, political maneuvering by the aristocracy led to the convocation of the 1789 Estates-General and popular revolt. [15]
Essai sur l'histoire génerale et sur les moeurs et l'espirit des nations, 1756 (Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations and on the Principal Occurrences in History)
Traité sur la Tolérance à l'occasion de la mort de Jean Calas, 1763 (Treatise on Toleration In Connection with the Death of Jean Calas)
Appeal to the Public on the Subject of the National Debt, 1771
Observations on Reversionary Payments, 1771
Observations on Civil Liberty and the Justice and Policy of the War with America, 1776
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith (Great Britain, 1723–1790), often considered the founder of modern economics, was a key figure in formulating and advancing economic doctrine of free trade and competition. In his Wealth of Nations Adam Smith outlined the key idea that if the economy is basically left to its own devices, limited and finite resources will be put to ultimately their most efficient use through people acting purely in their self-interest. This concept has been quoted out of context by later economists as the invisible hand of the market.
Smith also advanced property rights and personal civil liberties, including stopping slavery, which today partly form the basic liberal ideology. He was also opposed to stock-holding companies, what today is called a "corporation", because he predicated the self-policing of the free market upon the free association of moral individuals.
Über den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis, 1793 (On the common saying: this may be true in theory but it does not apply in practice)
Thomas Paine (United Kingdom/United States, 1737–1809) was a Founding Father , political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of human rights. Following the American Revolution he returned to England then fled to France, to avoid arrest because advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government. In the Age of Reason, he advocated Deism, promoted reason and freethought, and argued against religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. In Agrarian Justice, opposed to Agrarian Law, and to Agrarian Monopoly sought the origins of poverty, locating them in inequitable distribution of land, "a violation of humankind's natural rights," which could be remedied through an estate tax.[16]
An early advocate of utilitarianism, animal welfare and women's rights. He had many students all around the world, including John Stuart Mill and several political leaders. Bentham demanded economic and individual freedom, including the separation of the state and church, freedom of expression, completely equal rights for women, the end of slavery and colonialism, uniform democracy, the abolition of physical punishment, also on children, the right for divorce, free prices, free trade and no restrictions on interest. Bentham was not a libertarian: he supported inheritance tax, restrictions on monopoly power, pensions, health insurance and other social security, but called for prudence and careful consideration in any such governmental intervention.
Adamantios Korais
Adamantios Korais
Adamantios Korais (Smyrna, 1748–1833) A major figure of the Greek Enlightenment, Korais helped shape the modern Greek state with his theories on classical education, language, religion, secular law and constitutional government, with passionate views on the necessity of democracy. He corresponded with leading figures of the American republic, especially with Thomas Jefferson.
Some literature:
Report on the Present State of Civilization in Greece, 1803
What Should We Greeks Do in the Present Circumstances?, 1805
Charles James Fox (United Kingdom, 1749–1806) a Whig politician and member of parliament who spent most of his career in opposition. He opposed tyranny of any sort or the threat of it. For this reason he was a staunch critic of King George III whom he regarded as an aspiring tyrant. He was an abolitionist and supporter of American Patriots and of the French Revolution. He attacked Pitt's wartime legislation and defended the liberty of religious minorities and political radicals. After Pitt's death in January 1806, Fox served briefly as Foreign Secretary in the 'Ministry of All the Talents' of William Grenville.
The Speeches of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox in the House of Commons.[18]
Stanisław Staszic (Poland-Lithuania, 1755–1826) was a Catholic priest, philosopher, geologist, writer, poet, translator and statesman. A physiocrat, monist, pan-Slavist (after 1815) and an advocate of laissez-faire, he supported many reforms in Poland. He is particularly remembered for his political writings during the "Great (Four-Year) Sejm" (1788–92) and for his support of the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
Mary Wollstonecraft (United Kingdom, 1759–1797) is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason. Works:
Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (On the Limits of State Action), 1792.
Adam Czartoryski
Adam Czartoryski (Poland-Lithuania 1770–1867) was a statesman, and international politician. He began as a foreign minister to the Russian Tsar Alexander I and built an anti-Napoleon coalition. He became a leader of the Polish government in exile, and an enemy of Russian Tsar Nicholas I. In exile he was an activist on the Polish Question across Europe, and stimulated early Balkan independence.
Some literature:
Essai sur la diplomatie (Marseilles, 1830);
Life of J. U. Niemcewicz (Paris, 1860);
Alexander I. et Czartoryski: correspondence ... et conversations (1801–1823)
Memoirs of Czartoryski, with documents relating to his negotiations with Pitt, and conversations with Palmerston in 1832
The Dutch statesman Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (Netherlands, 1798–1872) was the main theorist of Dutch liberalism in the nineteenth century, outlining a more democratic alternative to the absolute monarchy, the constitutional monarchy. The constitution of 1848 was mainly his work. His main theoretical article specifically labeled as 'liberal' was 'Over het hedendaagsche staatsburgerschap' (On Modern Citizenship) from 1844. He became prime minister in 1849, thus starting numerous fundamental reforms in Dutch politics.
Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (also spelt Tahtawy) was an Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist, renaissance intellectual and one of the early adapters to Islamic Modernism. In 1831, Tahtawi was part of the statewide effort to modernize the Egyptian infrastructure and education.[20] Three of his published volumes were works of political and moral philosophy. They introduced his Egyptian audience to Enlightenment ideas such as secular authority and political rights and liberty; his ideas regarding how a modern civilized society ought to be and what constituted by extension a civilized or "good Egyptian"; and his ideas on public interest and public good.[21] Tahtawi's work was the first effort in what became an Egyptian renaissance (nahda) that flourished in the years between 1860 and 1940.[22]
Works:
A Paris Profile, written during Tahtawi's stay in France.
The methodology of Egyptians minds with regard to the marvels of modern literature, published in 1869 crystallizing Tahtawi's opinions on modernization.
The honest guide for education of girls and boys, published in 1873 and reflecting the main precepts of Tahtawi's educational thoughts.
Tawfik al-Galil insights into Egypt's and Ismail descendants' history, the first part of the History Encyclopedia published in 1868 and tracing the history of ancient Egypt till the dawn of Islam.
A thorough summary of the biography of Mohammed published after Tahtawi's death, recording a comprehensive account of the life of Prophet Mohammed and the political, legal and administrative foundations of the first Islamic state.
Towards a simpler Arabic grammar, published in 1869.
Grammatical sentences, published in 1863.
Egyptian patriotic lyrics, written in praise of Khedive Said and published in 1855.
The luminous stars in the moonlit nights of al-Aziz, a collection of congratulatory writings to some princes, published in 1872.
For the development of American liberalism after World War II, see Liberalism in the United States. American liberal theorists who also had influence on liberalism outside the United States are included in this section.
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (United Kingdom, 1806–1873) is one of the first champions of modern "liberalism." As such, his work on political economy and logic helped lay the foundation for advancements in empirical science and public policy based on verifiable improvements. Strongly influenced by Bentham's utilitarianism, he disagrees with Kant's intuitive notion of right and formulates the "highest normative principle" of morals as: Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
Some consider Mill as the founder of Social liberalism. Although Mill was mainly for free markets, he accepted interventions in the economy, such as a tax on alcohol, if there were sufficient utilitarian grounds. Mill was also a champion of women's rights.
Some literature:
Considerations On Representative Government, 1862
On Liberty, 1868
Socialism, 1879
José María Luis Mora
José María Luis Mora
José María Luis Mora (New Spain/Mexico 1794 – 1850) was a priest, lawyer, historian, politician and liberal ideologist. Considered one of the first supporters of liberalism in Mexico, he fought for the separation of church and state. Mora has been deemed "the most significant liberal spokesman for his generation [and] his thought epitomizes the structure and the predominant orientation of Mexican liberalism." Some works:
Catecismo político de la federación mexicana. Mexico 1831
Disertación sobre la naturaleza y aplicación de las rentas y bienes eclesiásticas, y sobre la autoridad a que se hallan sujetos en cuanto a su creación, aumento, sustencia o supresión. Mexico 1833.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (United States, 1803–1882) was an American philosopher who argued that the basic principles of government were mutable, and that government is required only insofar as people are not self-governing. Proponent of Democracy, and of the idea that a democratic people must have a democratic ethics.
Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina (Bases and Points of Departure for the Political Organization of the Argentine Republic), 1852
Sistema económico y rentistico de la Confederación Argentina, según su Constitución de 1853 (Economic and rentistic system of the Argentine Confederation, according to its 1853 Constitution), 1854
Jacob Burckhardt (Switzerland, 1818–1897) State as derived from cultural and economic life.
Jocob Burckhardt
Some literature:
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (United Kingdom, 1820–1903), philosopher, psychologist, and sociologist, advanced what he called the "Law of equal liberty" and argued against liberal theory promoting more activist government, which he dubbed "a new form of Toryism." He supported a state limited in its duties to the defense of persons and their property. For Spencer, voluntary cooperation was the hallmark of the most vibrant form of society, accommodating the widest diversity of members and the greatest diversity of goals. Spencer's evolutionary approach has been characterized as an extension of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" explanation of economic order; his extensive work on sympathy (in psychology as well as the foundation of ethics, particularly in The Data of Ethics) explicitly carried on Smith's approach in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Spencer is frequently characterized as a leading Social Darwinist.
Essays, Scientific, Political and Speculative, 1892
İbrahim Şinasi
İbrahim Şinasi (Ottoman Empire, 1826–1871), author, journalist, translator, and newspaper editor. He was the innovator of several fields: he wrote one of the earliest examples of an Ottoman play, he encouraged the trend of translating poetry from French into Turkish, he simplified the script used for writing the Ottoman Turkish language, and he was one of the first of the Ottoman writers to write specifically for the broader public. Şinasi used his newspapers, Tercüman-ı Ahvâl and Tasvîr-i Efkâr, to promote the proliferation of European Enlightenment ideals during the Tanzimat period,[23] and he made the education of the literate Ottoman public his personal vocation. Though many of Şinasi's projects were incomplete at the time of his death, "he was at the forefront of a number of fields and put his stamp on the development of each field so long as it contained unsolved problems." Şinasi, influenced by Enlightenment thought, saw freedom of expression as a fundamental right and used journalism in order to engage, communicate with, and educate the public. By speaking directly to the public about government affairs, Şinasi declared that state actions were not solely the interest of the government.[24]
Works:
Tercüme-i Manzume (1859, translation of poems from the French of La Fontaine, Lamartine, Gilbert, and Racine)
Şair Evlenmesi (1859, the first Ottoman play, "The Wedding of a Poet")[25]
Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Principles of Economics), 1871
Untersuchungen über die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften und der Politischen Ökonomie insbesondere (Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences: with special reference to economics), 1883
Irrthumer des Historismus in der deutschen Nationalokonomie (The Errors of Historicism in German Economics), 1884
Zur Theorie des Kapitals (The Theory of Capital), 1888
Lester Ward was a botanist, paleontologist, and sociologist. He served as the first president of the American Sociological Association. Ward was a fierce and unrelenting critic of the laissez-faire policies advocated by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner.
Some literature:
(1883) Dynamic Sociology: Or Applied social science as based upon statical sociology and the less complex sciences.
(1893) The Psychic Factors of Civilization, 1893.
(1903) Pure Sociology. A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of Society.
(1906) Applied Sociology. A Treatise on the Conscious Improvement of Society by Society.
Thorstein Veblen (1857–1926) is best known as the author of Theory of the Leisure Class. Veblen was influential to a generation of American liberalism searching for a rational basis for the economy beyond corporate consolidation and "cut throat competition". Veblen's central argument was that individuals require sufficient non-economic time to become educated citizens. He caustically attacked pure material consumption for its own sake, and the idea that utility equalled conspicuous consumption.
Max Weber (Germany, 1864–1920) was a theorist of state power and the relationship of culture to economics. Argued that there was a moral component to capitalism rooted in "Protestant" values. Weber was along with Friedrich Naumann active in the National Social Union and later in the German Democratic Party.
Leo Chiozza Money (Britain, 1870–1944) An Italian-born economic theorist who moved to Britain in the 1890s, where he made his name as a politician, journalist and author. In the early years of the 20th century his views attracted the interest of two future Prime Ministers, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. After a spell as Lloyd George's parliamentary private secretary, he was a Government minister in the latter stages of the First World War.
Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed
Ahmed Lutfi el-SayedPasha (Egypt, 1872–1963) An Egyptian intellectual, anti-colonial activist and the first director of Cairo University. He was an influential person in the Egyptian nationalist movement and used his position in the media to strive and gain an independent Egypt from British rule. He was also one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism as well as the architect of Egyptian secularism and liberalism. He was fondly known as the "Professor of the Generation". Lutfi was one of the fiercest opponents of pan-Arabism, insisting that Egyptians are Egyptians and not Arabs.[26] He is considered one of the most influential scholars and intellectuals in the history of Egypt.[27]
Adolf Berle (United States, 1895–1971) was author of The Modern Corporation and Private Property, detailing the importance of differentiating between the management of corporations and the share holders who are the owners. Influential in the theory of New Deal policy.
Friedrich Hayek (Austria/United Kingdom/United States/Germany, 1899–1992) In Hayek's view, the central role of the state should be to maintain the rule of law, with as little arbitrary intervention as possible. Also a Nobel Prize winner in economics and predicter of the Great Depression like fellow Austrian School economist and mentor Ludwig von Mises.
Karl Raimund Popper (Austria/United Kingdom, 1902–1994) developed the idea of the open society, characterized by respect for a wide variety of opinions and behaviors and a preference for audacious but piecemeal political reform over either conservative stasis or revolutionary utopianism. In his view, all simplistic and grandiose theories of history and society shared a common feature he called historicism, which he traces back to Plato, while the open society mirrors the methodological fallibilism pioneered by Popper in his earlier works on philosophy of science.
Alan Paton (South Africa, 1903–1988) contributed with his book Cry, The Beloved Country to a clear anti-apartheid stand of South African liberalism. His party, the Liberal Party of South Africa was banned by the apartheid government.
Ayn Rand (United States, 1905–1982) was a radical and influential moral and political philosopher. Her advocacy of strong self-interest in ethics was influenced, she claimed, by the thinkers Aristotle, Aquinas, and Locke. Her advocacy of pure laissez-faire capitalism was influenced by the classical liberal economists Mises and Hayek.
John Kenneth Galbraith (Canadian-born economist who worked in the United States, 1908–2006)
Some literature:
The Affluent Society, 1958
The Liberal Hour, 1960
Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin (Latvia/United Kingdom, 1909–1997) is most famous for his attempt to distinguish 'two conceptions of liberty'. Berlin argued that what he called 'positive' and 'negative' liberty were mutually opposing concepts. Positive conceptions assumed that liberty could only be achieved when collective power (in the form of church or state) acted to 'liberate' mankind from its worst aspects. These, Berlin felt, tended towards totalitarianism. Negative conceptions, by contrast, argued that liberty was achieved when individuals were given maximal freedom from external constraints (so long as these did not infringe on the freedom of others to achieve the same condition). Berlin was also a critic of dogmatic Enlightenment rationalism on the grounds that it was unable to accommodate value pluralism.
James Buchanan (United States, 1919–2013) is known for his economic theories of the political process, which were among the first to take seriously the concept of politicians as rational actors that respond to incentives.
Some literature:
The Calculus of Consent / James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, 1962
The Limits of Liberty, 1975
Democracy in Deficit / James Buchanan & Richard E. Wagner, 1977
The Power to Tax / James Buchanan & Geoffrey Brennan, 1980
The Reason of Rules / James Buchanan & Geoffrey Brennan, 1985
John Rawls
John Rawls (United States, 1921–2022) One of the most influential political philosophers of the 20th century, largely responsible for the rebirth of normative political philosophy. He argues for equal basic liberties, equality of opportunity, and facilitating the maximum benefit to the least advantaged members of society in any case where inequalities may occur. Rawls's argument for these principles of social justice uses a thought experiment called the "original position", in which people deliberately select what kind of society they would choose to live in if they did not know which social position they would personally occupy.
Murray Rothbard (United States, 1926–1995) was the originator of modern anarcho-capitalism and an economist and economic historian of the Austrian school. He is widely considered one of the foremost advocates of liberty and freedom in the late 20th century.[citation needed] He was involved with various political movements throughout his life, notably with Ayn Rand and, later, the Libertarian Party of United States. His influence is lasting in the libertarian and anarcho-capitalist movements.
Jednostka i nieskończoność. Wolność i antynomie wolności w filozofii Spinozy (The Individual and the Infinite: Freedom and Antinomies of Freedom in Spinoza's Philosophy), 1958
Rozmowy z diabłem (US title: Conversations with the Devil / UK title: Talk of the Devil; reissued with The Key to Heaven under the title The Devil and Scripture, 1973)
Od Hume'a do Koła Wiedeńskiego (the 1st edition:The Alienation of Reason, then Positivist Philosophy from Hume to the Vienna Circle)
Die Chancen der Krise: über die Zukunft des Liberalismus, 1983
Fragmente eines neuen Liberalismus, 1987
Karl-Hermann Flach
The journalist Karl-Hermann Flach (Germany, 1929–1973) was in his book Noch eine Chance für die Liberalen one of the main theorist of the new social liberal principles of the Free Democratic Party (Germany). He places liberalism clearly as the opposite of conservatism and opened the road for a government coalition with the social democrats.
Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality
Justice for Hedgehogs
Bryan Magee
The British politician Bryan Magee wrote some books of political philosophy. Although he was a member of the Labour Party and then the Social Democrats, he wrote in his autobiography that he considered himself a liberal.[29] He saw his book The New Radicalism as an attempt to convert the Labour Party to a tradition of radical liberalism, in which he included Karl Popper.[30] He later followed this with The Democratic Revolution, which was very critical of Communism in Eastern Europe.[31]
Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty (United States, 1931–2007) was one of the leading contemporary philosophers of liberalism. His fundamental claims, among others, are that liberalism is best defined as the attempt to avoid cruelty to others; that liberals need to accept the historical 'irony' that there is no metaphysical justification for their belief that not being cruel is a virtue; that literature plays a crucial role in developing the empathy necessary to promote solidarity (and therefore lack of cruelty) between humans; and that private philosophising and public political discourse are separate practices and should remain so.
Robert Nozick (United States, 1938–2002) was a libertarian (or minarchist). He advocated an unapologetically reductionist political philosophy characterized by meticulous analysis of the moral aspects of each social interaction, and did not shy away from addressing hard philosophical issues such as the original appropriation of property. Nozick is best known for providing the justification of a minimal state by showing that it can be established without any unjust steps.
The economist Hernando de Soto (Peru, 1941– ) is an advocate of transparency and private property rights, arguing that intransparent government leads to property not being given proper title, and therefore being "dead capital" which cannot be used as the basis of credit. Argues that laws which allocate property to those most able to use them for economic growth, so called "squatter's rights", are an important innovation.
Some literature:
The Other Path, 1986.
The Mystery of Capital, 2000.
Michael Meadowcroft
A biography described the British politician Michael Meadowcroft as "the main, indeed very nearly the only, philosopher of applied Liberalism within the old Liberal Party from the late 1960s onwards".[32] On the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in the UK to form the Liberal Democrats, Meadowcroft initially reconstituted a new Liberal Party with others who did not want to compromise the philosophy of liberalism.[32] However, the new Liberal Party became increasingly Eurosceptic under the leadership of Steve Radford and Meadowcroft joined the Liberal Democrats in 2007.[33] He has regularly argued for the importance of political philosophy and that members of the Liberal Democrats require more conviction in their beliefs.[34][35][36]
Some literature:
Meadowcroft, Michael (1979). Liberal values for a new decade. Liberal Publication Department.
Meadowcroft, Michael; Marquand, David (1981). Liberalism and social democracy. London: Liberal Publication Department.
Meadowcroft, Michael (1997). Focus on freedom: the case for the Liberal Party (1ed.). Southport: Liberal Party.
Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education (1997)
Sex and Social Justice (1998)
Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (2004)
Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership (2006)
From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law (2010)
Will Kymlicka
Will Kymlicka (Canada, 1962– ) tries in his philosophy to determine if forms of ethnic or minority nationalism are compatible with liberal-democratic principles of individual freedom, social equality and political democracy. In his book Multicultural Citizenship. A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights he argues that certain "group-differentiated rights" of minority cultures can be consistent with these liberal-democratic principles.
Footnotes
↑ Becker, Lawrence (29 August 2017). A New Stoicism (1.ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN9780691177212.
↑ Rosen, Frederick (2005). Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill. Routledge. p.251. According to Isaiah Berlin, the most eloquent of all defenders of freedom and privacy [was] Benjamin Constant, who had not forgotten the Jacobin dictatorship.
↑ Nergis Ertürk, Grammatology and Literary Modernity in Turkey. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
↑ M. Sükrü Hanioglu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, (Princeton University Press, 2008), 100.
↑ Hourani, Albert. 1962. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. pg 177.
↑ Wendell, C; P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C. E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W. P. Heinrichs (2011). "Luṭfīal-Sayyid, Aḥmad". Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Retrieved April 11, 2011.[permanent dead link]
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech. Classical liberalism, contrary to liberal branches like social liberalism, looks more negatively on social policies, taxation and the state involvement in the lives of individuals, and it advocates deregulation.
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and advocating that the interests of the individual should gain precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Individualism makes the individual its focus, and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation".
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of laws by authority: what they are, if they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect, what form it should take, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a legitimate government, if any, and when it may be legitimately overthrown, if ever.
Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, or simply Benjamin Constant, was a Swiss political thinker, activist and writer on political theory and religion.
Liberalism and progressivism within Islam involve professed Muslims who have created a considerable body of progressive thought about Islamic understanding and practice. Their work is sometimes characterized as "progressive Islam". Some scholars, such as Omid Safi, differentiate between "Progressive Muslims" and "Liberal advocates of Islam".
Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which supports unregulated laissez faire capitalism with very few government services.
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, FBA was an English liberal political theorist and sociologist, who has been considered one of the leading and earliest proponents of social liberalism. His works, culminating in his famous book Liberalism (1911), occupy a seminal position within the canon of New Liberalism. He worked both as an academic and a journalist, and played a key role in the establishment of sociology as an academic discipline; in 1907 he shared, with Edward Westermarck, the distinction of being the first professor of sociology to be appointed in the United Kingdom, at the University of London. He was also the founder and first editor of The Sociological Review. His sister was Emily Hobhouse, the British welfare activist.
Liberalism in Egypt or Egyptian liberalism is a political ideology that traces its beginnings to the 19th century.
Classical republicanism, also known as civic republicanism or civic humanism, is a form of republicanism developed in the Renaissance inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity, especially such classical writers as Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero. Classical republicanism is built around concepts such as liberty as non-domination, self-government, rule of law, property-based personality, anti-corruption, abolition of monarchy, civics, civil society, common good, civic virtue, popular sovereignty, patriotism and mixed government.
Libertarianism is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing equality before the law and civil rights to freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of choice. Libertarians are often skeptical of or opposed to authority, state power, warfare, militarism and nationalism, but some libertarians diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing economic and political systems. Various schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding the legitimate functions of state and private power. Different categorizations have been used to distinguish various forms of Libertarianism. Scholars distinguish libertarian views on the nature of property and capital, usually along left–right or socialist–capitalist lines. Libertarians of various schools were influenced by liberal ideas.
In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty. According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in the United States, libertarianism has been described as conservative on economic issues and liberal on personal freedom, often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism. Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in the United States after liberalism associated with the New Deal; the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard, who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and the subjective theory of value; the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions; and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan and Ron Paul.
Michael James Meadowcroft is a British author, politician and political affairs consultant. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West from 1983 to 1987.
Right-libertarianism, also known as libertarian capitalism, or right-wing libertarianism, is a libertarian political philosophy that supports capitalist property rights and defends market distribution of natural resources and private property. The term right-libertarianism is used to distinguish this class of views on the nature of property and capital from left-libertarianism, a type of libertarianism that combines self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to property and income. In contrast to socialist libertarianism, right-libertarianism supports free-market capitalism. Like most forms of libertarianism, it supports civil liberties, especially natural law, negative rights, the non-aggression principle, and a major reversal of the modern welfare state.
The political philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) favoured a classical republican approach. In Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795), Kant listed several conditions that he thought necessary for ending wars and creating a lasting peace. They included a world of constitutional republics by establishment of political community. His classical republican theory was extended in Doctrine of Right (1797), the first part of Metaphysics of Morals. At the end of the 20th century Kant's political philosophy had been enjoying a remarkable renaissance in English-speaking countries with more major studies in a few years than had appeared in the preceding many decades.
Rifa'a Rafi' at-Tahtawi was an Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist, and intellectual of the Nahda.
Articles in social and political philosophy include:
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to libertarianism:
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mutually warring views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights, liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, constitutional government and privacy rights. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.
Liberalism, the belief in freedom, equality, democracy and human rights, is historically associated with thinkers such as John Locke and Montesquieu, and with constitutionally limiting the power of the monarch, affirming parliamentary supremacy, passing the Bill of Rights and establishing the principle of "consent of the governed". The 1776 Declaration of Independence of the United States founded the nascent republic on liberal principles without the encumbrance of hereditary aristocracy—the declaration stated that "all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". A few years later, the French Revolution overthrew the hereditary aristocracy, with the slogan "liberty, equality, fraternity" and was the first state in history to grant universal male suffrage. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, first codified in 1789 in France, is a foundational document of both liberalism and human rights, itself based on the U.S. Declaration of Independence written in 1776. The intellectual progress of the Enlightenment, which questioned old traditions about societies and governments, eventually coalesced into powerful revolutionary movements that toppled what the French called the Ancien Régime, the belief in absolute monarchy and established religion, especially in Europe, Latin America and North America.
Neoclassical liberalism is a tradition of the liberal thought that, with the premises of John Locke's classical liberalism applied to industrialized societies, stands in opposition to the welfare state and social liberalism. In the United States, the Arizona School of liberalism, also referred to as "bleeding-heart libertarianism", adopted the term neoclassical liberal to advance certain ideas of Chicago School economist Milton Friedman within the American libertarian movement, including the school voucher system and the negative income tax.
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