PHIL 115 Study Guide - Final Guide: John Stuart Mill, Radical Empiricism, On Liberty
4 Aug 2016
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Liberalist principles: the state should be neutral regarding what the good life" for the human being is. The state should not tell the individual how they should live, or what moral values should orient their lives. The state should practice a kind of neutrality or constraint: primacy of individual rights > competing values, separation of the church and the state, separation of powers and the bounds of powers. Whenever there is absolute (unlimited) political power, there is injustice, which leads to tyranny. Power in principle belongs to the citizens. All humans are rational by nature, therefore all humans should be equal by nature. The rule of law the law is not the function of their personal will: conformity = law-makers try to compel everyone to think and act in the same way, negative freedom = freedom from external interference. Criticism: negative freedom does not guarantee a morally upright society.
