Classical Liberalism: The Unvanquished Ideal

161 Pages·1995·2.259 MB·English

by  David Conway

Classical Liberalism
The Unvanquished Ideal
David Conway
CLASSICAL LIBERALISM
Also by David Conway
A FAREWELL TO MARX: An Outline and Appraisal of his Theories
Classical Liberalism
The Unvanquished Ideal
David Conway
Professor of Philosophy
School of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Middlesex University
M First published in Great Britain 1995 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-64842-0
ffi First published in the United States of America 1995 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-12867-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conway, David.
Classical liberalism : the unvanquished ideal / David Conway.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-12867-3
1. Liberalism. I. Title.
JC574.C66 1995
320.5' 1—dc20 95-21527
CIP
©David Conway 1995
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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To Caroline
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Classical Liberalism 6
2.1 The Fundamental Problem of Political Philosophy 6
2.2 The Classical Liberal Solution: The System of Natural
Liberty 8
2.3 Why Liberty Implies Property 10
2.4 The Economic Case for Liberty 13
2.5 The Non-Economic Case for Liberty 17
2.6 The Starving Man in the Liberal Polity 20
3 Modern Liberalism 25
3.1 Modern versus Classical Liberalism 25
3.2 Justice as Fairness, Natural Endowment and Desert 27
3.3 Impartiality, Inequalities of Sacrifice, and Legitimacy 35
3.4 Equal Worth, Equal Treatment and Equality of
Resources 39
3.5 Radical Egalitarianism and the Formal Principle of
Justice 42
3.6 Well-Being, Equality and the Politics of the Left 43
3.7 The Modern Feminist Critique of Classical Liberalism 56
4 Communitarianism 65
4.1 The Communitarian Case against the Liberal Polity 65
4.2 Community and the Liberal Polity 66
4.3 The Liberal Polity, Individualism and the Good of
Community 71
4.4 The Liberal Polity, Individualism and the Virtues 79
4.5 The Liberal Polity and Rational Morality 91
5 Conservatism 101
5.1 Varieties of Modern Conservatism 101
5.2 Allegiance, Patriotism and Nationhood 103
5.3 Post-Modern Liberal Conservatism 110
5.4 Radical Value Pluralism 114
vn
Vlll Contents
5.5 Personal Autonomy and Weil-Being in Modem Pluralistic
Society 119
5.6 The Conditions of Personal Autonomy 126
5.7 Human Weil-Being and Illiberal Society 129
6 Conclusion 133
Notes 139
Bibliography 145
Name Index 149
Subject Index 150
Acknowledgements
This book was made possible through the award of a Bowling Green State
University Visiting Scholar Fellowship. This award enabled me to stay at
the Social Philosophy and Policy Center of Bowling Green State University,
Ohio, during the Spring Semester of 1993, where the first draft was written.
I wish to register my special thanks to the Center's directors, Fred
Miller, Jeffrey Paul and Ellen Paul, for making me feel so welcome and
giving so generously of their time. I learned a great deal from each of
them.
I should like also to thank Gerald Gaus and John Gray who were at the
Center while I was there and from whom I benefited from discussion.
Thanks are also due to Alisdair Maclntyre and to his UK and US
publishers, Duckworth and University of Notre Dame Press, for their kind
permission to quote from the second edition of his book, After Virtue,
London and Notre Dame, 1987.
Towards those on this side of the Atlantic, I owe a different amalgam
of thanks. First, I must thank Middlesex University for having granted me
leave to take up the Fellowship. Second, I owe thanks to Arthur Seldon for
reading through and commenting upon an early draft. His many helpful
suggestions have done much to improve the final version.
Finally, and above all, I am indebted to my wife, Caroline, for all she
has done to make this book possible. It is to Caroline, fellow classical
liberal and muse, that the book is dedicated.
DAVID CONWAY
Middlesex University
IX