Fatal Attraction: “Willful Liberalism” and the Denial of Public Transparency

Abstract

Liberals often seek to ground public rules and institutions in values and beliefs that can make sense to all citizens despite their ethical diffeences. For Richard Flathman, however, this search for political “tranparency” is rooted in excessive fear of diversity and excessive optimism regarding our capacity to rationally resolve the difficulties created by liguistic and ethical opacity. He treats the result as not only philosophically incoherent, but also politically dangerous in promoting needless and unjustifiable restraints on individual purposiveness. He seeks to counter such problems with a “willful” liberalism that celebrates ethical opacity and promotes the widest possible diversity of self-making. This essay argues that, despite its many charms, “willful” liberalism suffers certain internal flaws. Specifically, Flathman's meta-ethical voluntarism works to undermine not only his commitment to equal freedom, but also the very goal of adventuresome self-making at the heart of his normative ideal.