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Full Idea
A liberal society treats people as equals by equipping them with the same set of rights, and it respects their freedom by allowing them to choose their own freely chosen ends.
Gist of Idea
Liberal equality concerns rights, and liberal freedom concerns choice of ends
Source
Andrew Shorten (Contemporary Political Theory [2016], 01)
Book Ref
Shorten,Andrew: 'Contemporary Political Theory' [Palgrave 2016], p.8
A Reaction
Equality of rights is fairly standard in any modern society (at least in principle). Freedom of ends is trickier. You can dismiss someone sleeping in the gutter as living a life that resulted from their choices. How many people have clear goals in life?
| 22597 | Minority rights are everyone's rights, because we all have turns in the minority [Constant] |
| 23037 | People are improved by egalitarian institutions and habits [Green,TH] |
| 6448 | A legitimate system is one accepted as both impartial and reasonably partial [Nagel] |
| 18644 | States can't enforce mutual aid on citizens, or interfere for their own good [Nozick] |
| 23102 | Liberals are egalitarians, but in varying degrees [Kekes] |
| 21113 | Liberal equality concerns rights, and liberal freedom concerns choice of ends [Shorten] |
| 22821 | Liberalism asserts maximum freedom, but that must be equal for all participants [Charvet] |
| 22834 | Egalitarian liberals prefer equality (either of input or outcome) to liberty [Charvet] |
| 23141 | Left-wingers are inconsistent in their essentialist descriptions of social groups [Gopnik] |