Philosophy
St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis
for Non-Perfectionist Politics
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, PA
2005, 358 pages
How can we establish a political/legal order that in principle
does not require the human flourishing of any person or group to be
given structured preference over that of any other? Addressing this
question as the central problem of political philosophy, Norms
of Liberty offers a new conceptual foundation for political
liberalism that takes protecting liberty, understood in terms of
individual negative rights, as the primary aim of the
political/legal order.
“Norms of Liberty is one of the most important works on
liberalism in recent years. The fact that individuals have
different views of the good life poses a fundamental dilemma for
modern political philosophy. Liberals frequently adopt a stance of
moral neutrality, suggestive of relativism, subjectivism, or
skepticism, while their opponents advocate a substantive moral view
at the expense of individual freedom. Rasmussen and Den Uyl present
a brilliant solution by distinguishing between normative principles
guiding individual moral conduct and metanormative principles that
concern legislation. They argue compellingly that neo-Aristotelian
perfectionist ethics can support liberal non-perfectionist
politics.”
— Fred D. Miller Jr., Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling
Green State University