Colin Bird mounts a powerful and original challenge to the traditional view that the ideas associated with the liberal political tradition--the meaning of political freedom, the notion of inviolable human rights, the idea of privacy--cohere around an "individualist" conception of the relation among individuals, society and the state. He argues that by taking this conception for granted, theorists have exaggerated the unity and integrity of liberal political ideals, and limited our perception of the issues they raise.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Bird makes an important contribution to contemporary discourse on liberalism, not least because he adopts a unique, noncommunitarian critical perspective." Ethics
"...this trenchant and intelligent book will justly reward the reader." Perspectives on Political Science
"...this trenchant and intelligent book will justly reward the reader." Perspectives on Political Science
Book Description
In this study Colin Bird mounts a powerful and original challenge to the traditional view that the ideas associated with the liberal political tradition--the meaning of political freedom, the notion of inviolable human rights, the idea of privacy--cohere around an 'individualist' conception of the relation between individuals, society and the state. He argues that by taking this conception for granted, theorists have exaggerated the unity and integrity of liberal political ideals, and limited our perception of the issues they raise.
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21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
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An excellent critique,
By Political Theorist (Cologne, Germany) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Myth of Liberal Individualism (Hardcover)
I learned from this book and enjoyed it. And I write that as one of the very people (liberal individualists) whom the author sets out to debunk. Professor Bird takes liberal individualist ideas seriously; he does his best to avoid merely setting up straw men; and his arguments are remarkably insightful and provocative. I was not persuaded of the overall case he constructs (for more reasons than I could state here, an inappropriate forum) and I believe that Bird makes a number of errors in his rebuttal of libertarianism, but he certainly provided me an enjoyable opportunity to exercise my mind. (And in any case, just maybe I'm the one in error.) The Myth of Liberal Individualism is well worth a careful reading.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
In the introduction, I suggested that the network of ideas that constitutes the received view of 'liberal individualism' is organized around a dual conception of 'individualism'. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
enforcement objection, associative conception, fact that individualists, inviolable private sphere, individual inviolability, asymmetrical conception, individualist ideal, aggregative conception, expressivist conception, expressivist view, service conception, totalitarian collectivism, ontological individualism, collective behalf, public agent, privileged capacity, service liberalism, ideal sketched, cold war liberals, libertarian sense, liberal individualism, nightwatchman state, political individualism, libertarian theory, individualist values Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, New York, Harm Principle, The Libertarian Idea, Loren Lomasky, Robert Nozick, Charles Taylor, David Johnston, Den Uyl, Critical Moral Realism, Jan Narveson, Philosophical Arguments, Public Domain, Representative Government, Four Essays, Golden Rule, Joseph Raz, Pareto Principle, Samuel Brittan, The Common Mind, The Morality of Freedom, Daniel Bell, Empire State, Four Essors New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In the introduction, I suggested that the network of ideas that constitutes the received view of 'liberal individualism' is organized around a dual conception of 'individualism'. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
enforcement objection, associative conception, fact that individualists, inviolable private sphere, individual inviolability, asymmetrical conception, individualist ideal, aggregative conception, expressivist conception, expressivist view, service conception, totalitarian collectivism, ontological individualism, collective behalf, public agent, privileged capacity, service liberalism, ideal sketched, cold war liberals, libertarian sense, liberal individualism, nightwatchman state, political individualism, libertarian theory, individualist values Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, New York, Harm Principle, The Libertarian Idea, Loren Lomasky, Robert Nozick, Charles Taylor, David Johnston, Den Uyl, Critical Moral Realism, Jan Narveson, Philosophical Arguments, Public Domain, Representative Government, Four Essays, Golden Rule, Joseph Raz, Pareto Principle, Samuel Brittan, The Common Mind, The Morality of Freedom, Daniel Bell, Empire State, Four Essors New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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9
books
cite this book:
See all 9 books citing this book
- A Theory of Justice by John Rawls on 19 pages
- On Liberty by John Stuart Mill on 16 pages
- Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick on 15 pages
- The Libertarian Idea (Ethics and Action Series) by Jan Narveson on 11 pages
- Representative Government by John Stuart Mill on 10 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy) by Colin Bird in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Perfection, the State, and Victorian Liberalism by Daniel S. Malachuk in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Ethics of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah in Back Matter
- Revisiting Universalism by Alison Assiter on page 50
- CULTURE AND EQUALITY: AN EGALITARIAN CRITIQUE OF MULTICULTURALISM by BRIAN BARRY in Back Matter
See all 9 books citing this book
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