DO POLITICIANS

Practice what they Preach?

What is Liberalism?

Are all lives equal?

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Are all lives Equal? Why cost benefit analysis values rich lives more and how philosophy can fix it.
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Liberal

While in modern American parlance, the term “liberal” has come to mean anyone on the left of
the political spectrum, Liberalism has a philosophical meaning and is generally associated with
support for a government that preserves freedom and individual rights. Ironically this means that
some who relish “owning the libs” are actually advocating for classically liberal positions around
freedom against the so-called illiberal left.

Definition

Liberalism is a collection or family of positions that may agree on some basic components but
disagree on others.

Depending on if you are from the US, from the UK, from France, or from somewhere else, you
might mean something different when you say “liberal.” This video will focus on the components
of liberalism that have broad agreement, thought it will touch on some of the areas where
different types of liberalism differ.

Liberal

Liberalism traces its origins back to John Locke and Thomas Hobbs. Hobbs asked the question of
what makes a government legitimate? He challenged the idea that oppression of a government is
necessarily preferable to a state of nature where all are free to do as they wish. Locke argued a
limited government was preferable to complete anarchy, but that people have basic rights to
freedom and a government’s actions are justified only in so far as they are undertaken to protect
the rights of others.

Pluralism

One explanation of the rise of liberalism is that it came following years of religious was where
different ideologies tried to impose their views on others (Catholicism, Protestantism, etc). For
kings to claim a divine right to rule, they needed to force their people to accept a common god.

Liberalism provided both a governing system that allowed for tolerance between different
religious groups (everyone had the rights to practice their own religion) and a new justification for
government (the consent of the governed).

Liberal
Liberalism therefore positions itself as opposed to both anarchism which does not accept the
legitimacy of any governments to enforce a particular dogmatic set of cultural beliefs or policies on
a population (check out our video on communitarian nationalism for more). Liberals believe in
freedom and basic human rights and only think government is justified when it is used to preserve
that freedom and those rights.

Individualim

Some describe liberals as committed to four primary components of individualism. First, that
individuals are the only things with moral status, that we should only care about things like
communities, languages, cultures, companies, or countries because there are people in them.
These other things may have derivative moral status because there are individuals that care about
them, but for the liberal, these lack a moral status on their own, only people have non-derivate
moral status.

Freedom

Second, that individuals have a right to their own personal freedom and that the purpose of the
state is to protect that freedom. The idea that “your freedom to swing your fist around ends at the
tip of my nose,” is a guiding principle here. People are free to do as they don´t interfere with the
freedom of others. The state is around to ensure that people don´t interfere with the rights of
others.

Individualism

Third, that these rights to freedom are equal, that people have these rights regardless of religion
or other demographic characteristic. Note that this is equality (i.e. equal treatment), not equity or
treatment commensurate with need (check out my video on equity vs equality for more). Fourth,
is the idea that individuals have freedom of thought and reason, and that the actions of a
government must be justified in reference to that reason, not a certain dogma or ideology. This
means that justification needs to be based on common reason and logic, not on a particular
community or religion´s worldview of morality.