The Limits of State Action - Hardcover

Humboldt, Wilhelm Von

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865971080 ISBN 13: 9780865971080

Publisher: Liberty Fund, 1993

Synopsis

The grand, leading principle, towards which every argument . . . unfolded in these pages directly converges, is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity.

This description by Wilhelm von Humboldt of his purpose in writing The Limits of State Action animates John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and serves as its famous epigraph. Seldom has a book spoken so dramatically to another writer. Many commentators even believe that Humboldt's discussion of issues of freedom and individual responsibility possesses greater clarity and directness than Mill's.

The Limits of State Action, by "Germany's greatest philosopher of freedom," as F. A. Hayek called him, has an exuberance and attention to principle that make it a valuable introduction to classical liberal political thought. It is also crucial for an understanding of liberalism as it developed in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century. Humboldt explores the role that liberty plays in individual development, discusses criteria for permitting the state to limit individual actions, and suggests ways of confining the state to its proper bounds. In so doing, he uniquely combines the ancient concern for human excellence and the modern concern for what has come to be known as negative liberty.

J. W. Burrow is Professor of History at the University of Sussex.

About this title

Book Description:

This text is important both as one of the most interesting contributions to the liberalism of the German Enlightenment, and as the most significant source for the ideas which John Stuart Mill popularized in his essay On Liberty. Humboldt's concern is to define the criteria by which the permissible limits of the state's activities may be determined.

About the Author:

Burrow is professor of European thought at Oxford University and fellow of Balliol College.

About this edition

• Publisher: Liberty Fund
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0865971080
• ISBN 13: 9780865971080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Burrow J. W.