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Single Idea 18663

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / b. Liberal individualism ]

Full Idea

Modern liberalism is concerned not only to protect the private sphere of social life, but also to carve out a realm within the private sphere where individuals can have privacy.

Gist of Idea

Modern liberalism has added personal privacy to our personal social lives

Source

Will Kymlicka (Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) [1990], 7.2.b)

Book Ref

Kymlicka,Will: 'Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn)' [OUP 1992], p.258


A Reaction

Interestingly, he associates this development with the romantic movement, which designated social interaction as public and political, creating a need for true privacy. Privacy is the blessing and blight of the modern world.


The 22 ideas with the same theme [individuals in a liberal society]:

Liberty is the triumph of the individual, over both despotic government and enslaving majorities [Constant]
The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill]
A true state is only unified and stabilised by acknowledging individuality [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
Individuality is only developed within groups [Dewey]
Laissez-faire individualism doesn't work, especially in troublesome times [Keynes]
Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil]
Only in the last 200 years have people demanded the democratic privilege of being individuals [Baudrillard]
Dworkin believed we should promote equality, to increase autonomy [Dworkin, by Kekes]
Modern liberalism has added personal privacy to our personal social lives [Kymlicka]
We have become attached to private life because that has become greatly enriched [Kymlicka]
The key liberal values are explained by the one core value, which is autonomy [Kekes]
Agents have little control over the capacities needed for liberal autonomy [Kekes]
The self is 'unencumbered' if it can abandon its roles and commitments without losing identity [Sandel, by Shorten]
Liberal justice means the withdrawal of the self, as transcendental or as unencumbered [Sandel]
The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari]
Maybe the rational autonomous liberal individual is merely the result of domination [Shorten]
Modern libertarian societies still provide education and some housing [Charvet]
Liberalism needs people to either have equal autonomy, or everyone to have enough autonomy [Charvet]
Kant places a higher value on the universal rational will than on the people asserting it [Charvet]
American white men trusted the philosophy of winning, and then discovered losing [Berardi]
Societies should celebrate individual agency, but not mere self-interest [Hutton]
Western civilization depends on a fully free market, private property, and free speech [Hutton]