For episode 29, see here
The Theory of the Nation State: The moderns
XXX. Liberalism Modernized
A. "Collectivism" as a spontaneous defense against social
destructiveness of industrial revolution began to replace
economic liberalism.
B. Liberal theory had to meet realities of industrialization.
C. John Stuart Mill on Liberty
1. Mill's philosophy, in a broad sense, is an effort to modify
the empiricism in which he was bred by taking into
account Kantian philosophy.
2. Granted differing degrees of pleasure in moral qualities,
thus departing from greatest happiness standard.
3. Abandoned egoism and saw moral goods as good in
themselves apart from contribution to greatest good.
4. Argued for popular government and liberty not as merely
efficient means but as producing and giving scope to a
a high moral character.
5. Saw that behind liberal government there must be a
liberal society.
6. But while arguing for individual freedom, the area for such
freedom -- must have no effect on others -- is reduced to
insignificance.
7. Mill never clarified what the individual ought to decide for
himself and could not appeal to a notion of natural rights.
8. Abandoned laissez faire in economics.
9. Mill's liberalism:
i. added respect for human beings to utility
ii. accepted political and social freedom as good in themselves
iii. liberty is a social good as well as an individual good
iv. the function of a liberal state in a free society is positive
not negative
D. Mill saw that Bentham had neglected role that institutions play
between individual psychology and concrete elements of given
time and place and did not recognize historical development.
E. Auguste Comte hoped to make concept of society not speculation
but science.
1. Proposed existence of general law of "development" of
societies.
2. The "comparative method" of examining societies became
"science".
F. Mill tried to incorporate Comte into utilitarian tradition enlarging
"empirical" from basis in individual psychology to include the
study of social institutions and especially their growth.
G. Herbert Spencer
1. Also came from philosophical radicalism tradition.
2. Blended utilitarianism ethical and political ideas with the
new conception of organic evolution.
3. While Mill went back to Bentham's empiricism, Spencer
went back to rationalist tradition of classical economics
using evolution to reconstruct system of natural society
with natural boundaries between economics and politics.
4. In his Synthetic Philosophy, he tried to set up a rationalistic
system spanning whole range of human knowledge with
progression from energy to life, from life to mind, from mind
to society, from society to ever more complex civilizations.
5. Saw moral improvement of social well-being achieved through
the survival of the fittest.
6. The state would wither away as society grew more complex
through an extension of laissez faire.
7. Legislation mars this move towards perfection that nature
itself tends toward via survival of the fittest.
H. In response to the growing claim of labor to more than subsistence
existence, and public support for this claim, liberalism needed
revision to give positive role to government.
I. Oxford idealists -- T.H.Green, Josiah Royce and John Dewey --
provided this revision in the late 19th Century.
1.With Hegel, they shared the general idea that human nature
is fundamentally social.
2. Brought to liberalism the problem of the mutual dependence
between the structure of personality and the cultural
structure of its social milieu.
3. Green saw deprivation as not only economic but also moral.
i. with the Greeks, saw politics as essentially an agency
for creating social conditions that make moral
developmemt possible.
ii. posited concept of positive freedom to enjoy something
worth doing or enjoying -- as opposed to Bentham's
negative freedom from legal restraint -- as freedom must
include actual possibility of developing human capacities
iii. requires a genuinely increased individual ability to
share in goods produced by society and a greater ability
to contribute to the common good
iv. consistent with the core of liberal philosophy, the idea of
a general good capable of being shared by everyone and
providing a standard for legislation
4. Green's two elements of rights:
i. claim to freedom of action in acquiring subsistence as
part of an individual's impulse to realize his own inner
powers and capabilities
ii. general social recognition that this claim is warranted
and that the individual's freedom really does contribute
to the general good
"A moral community from Green's point of view, therefore, is one in
which the individual responsibly limits his claims to freedom in the
light of general social interests and in which the community itself
supports his claims because the general well-being can be realized
only through his initiative and freedom." 732
J. Green accepted the state as a positive agency to be used where
legislation could contribute to positive freedom.
K. Problems arose in dispute between two of Green's disciples,
Bernard Bosanquet and Leonard Hobhouse.
1. Centered around two ethical relationships:
i. between individual and community, and
ii. between society and state
2. Bosanquet argued the more Hegelian view of a "social
self" as what a person would be if fully moral and fully
intelligent when not impeded by one-sided give-and-take
with society in charge.
3. Hobhouse attacked metaphysical usage of the term "state,"
introduced to English usage by idealists because it could be
used to justify illiberal political regimentation or social
stratification.
L. Green was also compatible with liberal socialism such as the
Fabians.
1. The Fabians seek to regulate the economy because of the
bad effects of unregulated ones, not because of class
struggle.
2. Extended the critique of economic rent to the accumulation
of capital.
M. Liberalism has two usages now, both with valid historical
background.
1. As a midpoint between conservatism and socialism,
favorable to reform but opposed to radicalism.
2. As equivalent to what is popularly called democracy as
opposed to communism and fascism.
i. liberalism in this sense means the preservation of
democratic institutions
ii. can be identified with whole Western civilization while
the first meaning can be identified with the middle class
N. In the aftermath of WWI, fascism and communism set up
transcendent collective entity based on race, nation or community.
1. Conflicted with core elements of liberalism: individualism
and the moral nature of the relationships between individuals
in a community.
2. The moral nature of society inevitably came to be expressed
as some version of natural rights.
Next week: Marx and Dialectical Materialism
The Theory of the Nation State: The moderns
XXX. Liberalism Modernized
A. "Collectivism" as a spontaneous defense against social
destructiveness of industrial revolution began to replace
economic liberalism.
B. Liberal theory had to meet realities of industrialization.
C. John Stuart Mill on Liberty
1. Mill's philosophy, in a broad sense, is an effort to modify
the empiricism in which he was bred by taking into
account Kantian philosophy.
2. Granted differing degrees of pleasure in moral qualities,
thus departing from greatest happiness standard.
3. Abandoned egoism and saw moral goods as good in
themselves apart from contribution to greatest good.
4. Argued for popular government and liberty not as merely
efficient means but as producing and giving scope to a
a high moral character.
5. Saw that behind liberal government there must be a
liberal society.
6. But while arguing for individual freedom, the area for such
freedom -- must have no effect on others -- is reduced to
insignificance.
7. Mill never clarified what the individual ought to decide for
himself and could not appeal to a notion of natural rights.
8. Abandoned laissez faire in economics.
9. Mill's liberalism:
i. added respect for human beings to utility
ii. accepted political and social freedom as good in themselves
iii. liberty is a social good as well as an individual good
iv. the function of a liberal state in a free society is positive
not negative
D. Mill saw that Bentham had neglected role that institutions play
between individual psychology and concrete elements of given
time and place and did not recognize historical development.
E. Auguste Comte hoped to make concept of society not speculation
but science.
1. Proposed existence of general law of "development" of
societies.
2. The "comparative method" of examining societies became
"science".
F. Mill tried to incorporate Comte into utilitarian tradition enlarging
"empirical" from basis in individual psychology to include the
study of social institutions and especially their growth.
G. Herbert Spencer
1. Also came from philosophical radicalism tradition.
2. Blended utilitarianism ethical and political ideas with the
new conception of organic evolution.
3. While Mill went back to Bentham's empiricism, Spencer
went back to rationalist tradition of classical economics
using evolution to reconstruct system of natural society
with natural boundaries between economics and politics.
4. In his Synthetic Philosophy, he tried to set up a rationalistic
system spanning whole range of human knowledge with
progression from energy to life, from life to mind, from mind
to society, from society to ever more complex civilizations.
5. Saw moral improvement of social well-being achieved through
the survival of the fittest.
6. The state would wither away as society grew more complex
through an extension of laissez faire.
7. Legislation mars this move towards perfection that nature
itself tends toward via survival of the fittest.
H. In response to the growing claim of labor to more than subsistence
existence, and public support for this claim, liberalism needed
revision to give positive role to government.
I. Oxford idealists -- T.H.Green, Josiah Royce and John Dewey --
provided this revision in the late 19th Century.
1.With Hegel, they shared the general idea that human nature
is fundamentally social.
2. Brought to liberalism the problem of the mutual dependence
between the structure of personality and the cultural
structure of its social milieu.
3. Green saw deprivation as not only economic but also moral.
i. with the Greeks, saw politics as essentially an agency
for creating social conditions that make moral
developmemt possible.
ii. posited concept of positive freedom to enjoy something
worth doing or enjoying -- as opposed to Bentham's
negative freedom from legal restraint -- as freedom must
include actual possibility of developing human capacities
iii. requires a genuinely increased individual ability to
share in goods produced by society and a greater ability
to contribute to the common good
iv. consistent with the core of liberal philosophy, the idea of
a general good capable of being shared by everyone and
providing a standard for legislation
4. Green's two elements of rights:
i. claim to freedom of action in acquiring subsistence as
part of an individual's impulse to realize his own inner
powers and capabilities
ii. general social recognition that this claim is warranted
and that the individual's freedom really does contribute
to the general good
"A moral community from Green's point of view, therefore, is one in
which the individual responsibly limits his claims to freedom in the
light of general social interests and in which the community itself
supports his claims because the general well-being can be realized
only through his initiative and freedom." 732
J. Green accepted the state as a positive agency to be used where
legislation could contribute to positive freedom.
K. Problems arose in dispute between two of Green's disciples,
Bernard Bosanquet and Leonard Hobhouse.
1. Centered around two ethical relationships:
i. between individual and community, and
ii. between society and state
2. Bosanquet argued the more Hegelian view of a "social
self" as what a person would be if fully moral and fully
intelligent when not impeded by one-sided give-and-take
with society in charge.
3. Hobhouse attacked metaphysical usage of the term "state,"
introduced to English usage by idealists because it could be
used to justify illiberal political regimentation or social
stratification.
L. Green was also compatible with liberal socialism such as the
Fabians.
1. The Fabians seek to regulate the economy because of the
bad effects of unregulated ones, not because of class
struggle.
2. Extended the critique of economic rent to the accumulation
of capital.
M. Liberalism has two usages now, both with valid historical
background.
1. As a midpoint between conservatism and socialism,
favorable to reform but opposed to radicalism.
2. As equivalent to what is popularly called democracy as
opposed to communism and fascism.
i. liberalism in this sense means the preservation of
democratic institutions
ii. can be identified with whole Western civilization while
the first meaning can be identified with the middle class
N. In the aftermath of WWI, fascism and communism set up
transcendent collective entity based on race, nation or community.
1. Conflicted with core elements of liberalism: individualism
and the moral nature of the relationships between individuals
in a community.
2. The moral nature of society inevitably came to be expressed
as some version of natural rights.
Next week: Marx and Dialectical Materialism
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