HIST 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Political Liberalism, Political Freedom, Authoritarianism
Document Summary
Jean-jacques rousseau, the geneva manuscript, the nationalism reader, pp. 22-26: some defining characteristics of political liberalism. -rational (against irrationality, superstition consider legal evidence v. ordeals) -secular (compare french and english, authoritarian and libertarian, public and private, secularism) -progressive (compare the complexity of tradition in the modern period; also consider liberal timelessness projected backward and forward in time) -resting on equality (compare classical harmony: a primary defining characteristic. -a working definition of rights: rights are a mechanism for translating material, personal, or affective relationships into relationships of law and language. -liberal-democratic rights are never purely protective: consider three types of rights: -right to life (consider legal execution; napoleonic adultery laws) -right to privacy (consider the role of the search warrant) no one can come in my house w/out my permission: situating rousseau"s social contract. -social contract and rights (rousseau starts with the right to property rather than, say, life, speech, etc. why?)
