Liberalism (Fred Speaking)
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I've been reading John Locke, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, and others. Here's some background that may be useful:

• Many historians trace the social philosophy of liberalism back to the 17^th century and the ideas of John Locke. Locke was interested in the origins and justification of political power. He argued against what he called arbitrary power. He based his philosophy on what he called natural reason, the law of nature, or natural rights. Natural rights put a limit on what a sovereign was justified in doing to a subject. It could be assumed that people had never given certain rights to their sovereign, even in exchange for the benefits of stable government.
  

• At the end of the 18^th century, Immanuel Kant developed a form of liberalism that was based on his own metaphysical and ethical theories. Kant believed that individuals must never be simply used as a means to someone else's ends. He tried to base his liberalism on the dictates of reason rather than speculations about the consequences of adopting certain laws or institutions. Some historians call his liberalism "deontological" because of the reduced role it assigned to consequences.
  

• In the 19^th century, John Stuart Mill developed another form of liberalism. Mill rejected the notion of natural rights and based his liberalism on the ethical theory called utilitarianism. Utilitarianism regards human welfare as the greatest good and claims that this good should be maximized. But Mill also believed that maximizing human welfare required that we define an area of life in which the individual was free from external constraints. Within that area, society was not justified in interfering with the individual simply because he or she might harm herself. Freedom of belief, expression, and way of life was, within broad limits, protected. Mill also believed that freedom was necessary to allow the development of "individuality" and to promote social progress.
  

• In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, a new group of liberals emerged. They included people like L.T. Hobhouse in England and John Dewey in the United States. These writers wanted to preserve important elements of the older small government liberalism, but they also envisioned an expanded role for government. Hobhouse believed that a portion of the wealth produced in society is of social rather than individual origin. As a result, the state was justified in taking that portion in taxes and using it to better the condition of the people.
  

• The most influential contemporary philosopher of liberalism is John Rawls. Rawls rejects utilitarianism as an ethical theory. He is more sympathetic to the Kantian approach but he doesn't accept Kant's metaphysics. He also believes that a political philosophy must respect the separateness of individuals, and that utilitarianism fails to do. There is a sphere of liberty around each individual designed to recognize that separateness and protect that individual from abuse. But Rawls went further and insisted that social and economic inequalities be arranged so that they are to the "greatest benefit of the least advantaged." By adding this last requirement, he gave us a philosophical basis for a kind of welfare state liberalism.
  

• Rawls has had many critics, including Robert Nozick, the libertarian. Nozick also rejected utilitarianism and hoped to revive the notion of natural rights based on reason rather than utility. Individuals have rights that function as "side-constraints" on what others can do to achieve their various goals. A state of affairs is just, according to Nozick, because it has been arrived at by adhering to proper rules of procedure (including respect for side constraints) rather than because it maximizes welfare or happiness or some other good.

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