Political Science 2230E Lecture 1: Lecture 1 - Liberal Democratic Foundations
7 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Democracy is rule of the people, citizens get to choose the laws in which they will be subject to, made by the people and accountable by the people. Freedom or liberty is the most important fundamental value of liberalism. Liberalism takes note of humans as unique beings because we possess the capacity for reason and rationality to make choice, capacity for critical thinking and reflection, and this can prevail over basic passion because we are rational thinking beings. We have the capacity to think of our own conception of the good life, reflecting it because critical reflection allows this this is referred to as self-actualization, which means choosing a life plan and trying to achieve it. This critical reflection must be protected and flourished, to have the freedom to choose our goals, this is why freedom is so important to liberals, so we can engage in self-actualization.
