In Defence of Liberalism

This is a defence of liberalism and its philosophical foundations. The author argues that liberals usually make two contradictory claims: firstly, that liberalism is a neutral framework; and secondly, that it is the best framework. He proposes a reconciliation of these premises and a new defence of liberalism covering issues of rights, self-determination, decision-making and justice. Liberals seek to justify a framework of individual rights which are neutral. How can this be done, though, without (inconsistently) taking up some particular view of what is good? The book shows how liberal rights and liberties, regarded as deriving from rights of self-ownership, can be justified - not in terms of any particular conception of what is good, but as the conditions necessary in order to reach more reasonable views about what is intrinsically good.