Liberal Freedom

Pluralism, Polarization, and Politics

Eric MacGilvray

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781108871525
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

We seem to be losing the ability to talk to each other about – and despite – our political differences. The liberal tradition, with its emphasis on open-mindedness, toleration, and inclusion, is ideally suited to respond to this challenge. Yet liberalism is often seen today as a barrier to constructive dialogue: narrowly focused on individual rights, indifferent to the communal sources of human well-being, and deeply implicated in structures of economic and social domination. This book provides a novel defense of liberalism that weaves together a commitment to republican self-government, an emphasis on the value of unregulated choice, and an appreciation of how hard it is to strike a balance between them. By treating freedom rather than justice as the central liberal value this important book, critical to the times, provides an indispensable resource for constructive dialogue in a time of political polarization.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Why Liberalism? Why Freedom?
• 1 Free Actions and Free Persons
• 2 Republican Freedom
• 3 Market Freedom
• 4 The Liberal Tradition
• 5 Liberalism and the Problem of Polarization
• Conclusion
• Index