The myth of liberal individualism / Colin Bird.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bird, Colin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Individualism.

Liberalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book challenges us to look at liberal political ideas in a new way. Colin Bird examines the assumption, held both by liberals and by their strongest critics, that the values and ideals of the liberal political tradition cohere around a distinctively ""individualist"" conception of the relation between individuals, society and the state. He concludes that the formula of ""liberal individualism"" conceals fundamental conflicts between liberal views of these relations, conflicts that neither liberals nor their critics have adequately recognized. His original and provocative study develops a

Contents:

""Cover""; ""Half-title""; ""Title""; ""Copyright""; ""Dedication""; ""Contents""; ""Acknowledgements""; ""Introduction""; ""Clarifying �individualism�""; ""The evolution of �liberal individualism�""; ""Liberal individualism today""; ""�Immanent critique� and contemporary political theory""; ""Looking ahead""; ""1 Individualism as a political ideal""; ""Liberty and individual inviolability""; ""Liberty and the private sphere""; ""An inviolable private sphere""; ""2 Individualism as a theory""

""(1) The priority of the individual consists in the fact that individualists only deploy justifications that refer to the�""""(2) The priority of the individual consists in the fact that individualists recognize no collective aspirations or goals�""; ""(3) The priority of the individual consists in the fact that individualists deny that the state is a self-conscious agent�""; ""(4) The priority of the individual consists in the dependence of political individualism on �methodological individualism�""

""(5) The priority of the individual consists in the fact that individualists deny that collectivities have any ontological�""""(6) The priority of the individual consists in the fact that individualists only recognize those social goods that are�""; ""3 Public agency and conceptions of collectivity""; ""Conceptions of collectivity""; ""Aggregative conceptions of collectivity""; ""Associative conceptions of collectivity""; ""Symmetry""; ""The significance of these conceptions""; ""4 Individualist distributions of liberty""; ""From Rousseau to Kant""; ""Clarifying negative liberty""

""Mill's defence of liberty""""Conclusions""; ""5 Self-ownership and individual inviolability""; ""The thesis of individual inviolability""; ""The thesis of self-ownership""; ""Inviolable self-ownership rights?""; ""Two strategies of justification""; ""An economy of rights""; ""The enforcement objection""; ""6 The myth of liberal individualism""; ""The secret of libertarianism""; ""Broader implications""; ""The service conception""; ""The expressivist conception""; ""Beyond communitarianism""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-223) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-511-05157-3

0-511-15015-6

0-511-00420-6

OCLC:

47008849