Norms Of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis For Non-perfectionist Politics Project Muse Upcc Books

How can we establish a political/legal order that in principle does not require the human flourishing of any person or group to be given structured preference over that of any other? Addressing this question as the central problem of political philosophy, Norms of Liberty offers a new conceptual foundation for political liberalism that takes protecting liberty, understood in terms of individual negative rights, as the primary aim of the political/legal order. Rasmussen and Den Uyl argue for construing individual rights as metanormative principles, directly tied to politics, that are used to establish the political/ legal conditions under which full moral conduct can take place. These they distinguish from normative principles, used to provide guidance for moral conduct within the ambit of normative ethics. This crucial distinction allows them to develop liberalism as a metanormative theory, not a guide for moral conduct. The moral universe need not be minimized or morality grounded in sentiment or contracts to support liberalism, they show. Rather, liberalism can be supported, and many of its internal tensions avoided, with an ethical framework of Aristotelian inspiration--one that understands human flourishing to be an objective, inclusive, individualized, agent-relative, social, and self-directed activity. Contents......Page 8 Analytic Contents......Page 10 Preface......Page 13 part one: liberalism and the political order......Page 20 1 Liberalism in Crisis......Page 24 2 Liberalism and Ethics......Page 37 3 Liberalism’s Past and Precedents......Page 61 4 Why Individual Rights? Rights as Metanormative Principles......Page 95 5 The Natural Right to Private Property......Page 116 part two: a new deep structure for liberalism......Page 128 6 Individualistic Perfectionism......Page 130 7 Defending Individualistic Perfectionism......Page 172 8 Natural Law and the Common Good......Page 203 9 Self-Ownership......Page 225 part three: defending liberalism......Page 242 10 Communitarian and Conservative Critics......Page 244 11 The Structure of the Argument for Individual Rights......Page 284 12 Defending Individualistic Non-Perfectionist Politics......Page 303 Epilogue: From Metanorms to Metaphysics......Page 359 Index......Page 366 Liberalism In Crisis -- Liberalism And Ethics -- Liberalism's Past And Precedents -- Why Individual Rights? : Rights As Metanormative Principles -- The Natural Right To Private Property -- Individualistic Perfectionism -- Defending Individualistic Perfectionism -- Natural Law And The Common Good -- Self-ownership -- Communitarian And Conservative Critics -- The Structure Of The Argument For Individual Rights -- Defending Individualistic Non-perfectionist Politics -- Epilogue : From Metanorms To Metaphysics. Douglas B. Rasmussen And Douglas J. Den Uyl. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.