Liberty

Abstract

AbstractModerate conservatives think that liberty is one of the primary political values. The difficult question is what its limits should be. Defenders of liberty who give priority to it over other political values claim that it is a condition of the pursuit of all values. The problem is that the same claim holds also for the other primary political values. Liberty can be pursued only if the rule of law, justice, equality, and property are protected. Their protection requires limiting both negative liberty, the absence of coercion, and positive liberty, the autonomous pursuit of individual aims. Liberty must be limited because it can be misused. Extremists who regard liberty as the primary political value are guided by secular faith in the basic human motivation to follow reason and morality. Moderate conservatives think that the secular faith is mistaken. As the sad history of humanity makes obvious, human motivation is basically complex, ambivalent, and mixed. Depending on the context, conditions, and available alternatives, human beings sometimes follow reason and morality, and sometimes they act unreasonably and immorally. Moderate conservatives are realistic about human motivation. Defenders of liberty as the primary political value are misled by an optimistic illusion about human motivation.