Pluralism and Disagreement Liberty, Liberalism, and Perfectionism Jiří Baroš Pluralism and Disagreement 1 Liberty, Liberalism and Perfectionism Pluralism and Disagreement 2 § What is Liberty? § § § Contemporary Liberalism v. Perfectionism Liberty, Liberalism and Perfectionism Pluralism and Disagreement 3 § What is Liberty? § § § Contemporary Liberalism v. Perfectionism Liberty Pluralism and Disagreement 4 § Introduction § § Negative Liberty § § Positive Liberty § § Freedom as Civic Standing § Liberty: Introduction Pluralism and Disagreement 5 § Liberty Tradition - Fundamental Liberal Principle: Freedom is Normatively Basic § § Metaphysical Conception: Freedom of Will - Determinism and Responsibility § § Political Conception: Slavery as Paradigmatic Case of Unfreedom Negative Liberty Pluralism and Disagreement 6 § Paradigmatic Case of Its Lack: Prisoner § § Absence of Constraints Imposed by Others § § Advantages/Disadvantages § § Two Interpretations: -Non-obstruction (Ability to Act as One Chooses) -Opportunity (A Range of Opportunities for Action) Positive Liberty Pluralism and Disagreement 7 § Paradigmatic Case of Its Lack: Addict § § Self-Control, Self-Directedness, Self-Mastery § § Two Selves Metaphor § § Liberty and Submission Freedom as Civic Standing Pluralism and Disagreement 8 § Paradigmatic Case of Its Lack: Slave, Traditional Wife § Lack of Social Status § § Two Interpretations: -Communitarian -Neo-Roman - § Middle Way Strategy/Objections: Old News, Who Cares? Liberty, Liberalism and Perfectionism Pluralism and Disagreement 9 § What is Liberty? § § § Contemporary Liberalism v. Perfectionism Liberty, Liberalism and Perfectionism Pluralism and Disagreement 10 § What is Liberty? § § § Contemporary Liberalism v. Perfectionism Contemporary Liberalism Pluralism and Disagreement 11 § Liberal Moral Neutrality § § Liberal Political Neutrality § § Political Implications of Liberalism Liberal Moral Neutrality Pluralism and Disagreement 12 § What are Free and Equal Moral Persons? -makes, and can act upon moral demands… -freedom from moral authority -moral claims validated by their addressees § § What is Morality? Giving other reasons to comply when addressing moral claims to them… § § The Idea of Public Justification: a moral principle validated from the perspective of each moral person. Liberal Political Neutrality Pluralism and Disagreement 13 § The Non-coercion Principle: -Unjustified Coercion is Wrong. -Consensus Justification (same evaluative standards) -Convergence Justification (different evaluative standards but everyone has grounds to endorse the same moral principle) § § The Challenge of Political Realism § The Coercive Nature of the State: Political Implications of LPN Pluralism and Disagreement 14 § Disagreements not about Values, but about the Relative Importance of our Evaluative Standards § § § Often, No Public Justification Can be Advanced… § Liberal Political Neutrality Drastically Limits the Scope of Government… Contemporary Perfectionism Pluralism and Disagreement 15 § What is Perfectionism? § § Justificatory Liberalism v. Perfectionism § § Justification according to Perfectionism Perfectionism Pluralism and Disagreement 16 § Objective Good Component (v. Subjectivism): -Human Nature Perfectionism -Objective List Perfectionism § The Rejection of State Neutrality § …and Justificatory Liberalism Pluralism and Disagreement 17 § JL overstates the values served by public justification (i.e. stability and reciprocity) v. more comprehensive account of political morality § § JL grounds the condition of PJ on an implausible account of moral reasons; internalism v. externalism (deficiencies can prevent people from recognizing the reasons that apply to them) … and Justification Pluralism and Disagreement 18 § relational justification (must proceed from what all parties hold in common) § § justification simpliciter (one must present valid reasons overriding competing reasons) § § holistic nature of justification (against the bracketing strategy) Further Reading Pluralism and Disagreement 19 § Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty § Gaus, Justificatory Liberalism § Gaus, The Order of Public Reason § George, Making Men Moral § Larmore, The Autonomy of Morality § Pettit, Republicanism § Quong, Liberalism Without Perfection § Rawls, Political Liberalism § Raz, The Morality of Freedom § Wall, Liberalism, Perfectionism, and the Restraint § Wolterstorff, Understanding Liberal Democracy