Toward a Liberalism - Softcover

Flathman, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801495369 ISBN 13: 9780801495366

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1989

Synopsis

In Toward a Liberalism, Richard Flathman shows why and how political theory can contribute to the quality of moral and political practice without violating, as empiricist- and idealist-based theories tend to do, liberal commitments to individuality and plurality. Exploring the tense but inevitable relationship between liberalism and authority, he advances a theory of democratic citizenship tempered by appreciation of the ways in which citizenship is implicated with and augments authority. Flathman examines the relationship of individual rights to freedom on one hand and to authority and power on the other, rejecting the quest for a single homogenous and authoritative liberal theory.

About this title

About the Author:

The late Richard Flathman (1934–2015) was the George Armstrong Kelly Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, at Johns Hopkins University. Known for his influential application of the methods of analytic philosophy to questions in political science, he was the author of many books, including Pluralism and Liberal Democracy, Reflections of a Would-Be Anarchist: Ideals and Institutions of Liberalism, and Willful Liberalism: Voluntarism and Individuality in Political Theory and Practice.

Review:

"This book is an important contribution to contemporary liberal theory. It is important (1) because Flathman’s gift of patient and probing analysis has seldom been deployed to more illuminating advantage; (2) because he does much to restore teleological considerations to what I regard as their proper place; and (3) because he mitigates, in a manner both sensible and principled, the excesses and implausibilities of a great many well-known liberal theories."

(William A. Galston American Political Science Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0801495369
• ISBN 13: 9780801495366
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 252