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Single Idea 23085

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

Full Idea

Liberals regard pluralism, freedom, rights, equality and distributive justice as basic …but this particular group of values is explained by the true core of liberalism, the inner citadel for whose protection all the liberal battles are waged: autonomy.

Clarification

'pluralism' is accepting varied concepts of the good life

Gist of Idea

The key liberal values are explained by the one core value, which is autonomy

Source

John Kekes (Against Liberalism [1997], 01.5)

Book Ref

Kekes,John: 'Against Liberalism' [Cornell 1997], p.15

A Reaction

Given that children, soldiers, monks and nuns, and people in old folks homes have very limited autonomy, it is reasonable to query whether it really is so important. I like autonomy if I have external power over my life; not so good when in hospital.

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

22595 Liberty is the triumph of the individual, over both despotic government and enslaving majorities [Constant]
7231 The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill]
23039 A true state is only unified and stabilised by acknowledging individuality [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
22874 Individuality is only developed within groups [Dewey]
22601 Laissez-faire individualism doesn't work, especially in troublesome times [Keynes]
23863 Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil]
7977 Only in the last 200 years have people demanded the democratic privilege of being individuals [Baudrillard]
23104 Dworkin believed we should promote equality, to increase autonomy [Dworkin, by Kekes]
18663 Modern liberalism has added personal privacy to our personal social lives [Kymlicka]
23374 We have become attached to private life because that has become greatly enriched [Kymlicka]
23085 The key liberal values are explained by the one core value, which is autonomy [Kekes]
23092 Agents have little control over the capacities needed for liberal autonomy [Kekes]
21120 The self is 'unencumbered' if it can abandon its roles and commitments without losing identity [Sandel, by Shorten]
22263 Liberal justice means the withdrawal of the self, as transcendental or as unencumbered [Sandel]
20690 The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari]
21134 Maybe the rational autonomous liberal individual is merely the result of domination [Shorten]
22831 Modern libertarian societies still provide education and some housing [Charvet]
22839 Liberalism needs people to either have equal autonomy, or everyone to have enough autonomy [Charvet]
22847 Kant places a higher value on the universal rational will than on the people asserting it [Charvet]
23537 American white men trusted the philosophy of winning, and then discovered losing [Berardi]
24157 Societies should celebrate individual agency, but not mere self-interest [Hutton]
24159 Western civilization depends on a fully free market, private property, and free speech [Hutton]