This book develops an original and comprehensive theory of
political liberalism. It defends bold new accounts of the nature of autonomy
and individual liberty, the content of distributive justice, and the
justification for the authority of the State. The theory that emerges
integrates contemporary progressive and pluralistic liberalism into a broadly
Aristotelian intellectual tradition.
The early chapters of the book challenge the traditional
conservative idea of individual liberty-the liberty to dispose of one's
property as one wishes-and replace it with a new one, according to which liberty
is of equal value to all persons, regardless of economic position.
The middle chapters present an original theory of socio-economic
justice, arguing that a society in which every citizen enjoys an equal share of
liberty should be the distributive goal of the State. It is argued that this
goal is incompatible with the existence of large disparities in wealth and
economic power, and that (contra conservative
and libertarian economic arguments) such disparities are harmful to the overall
health of national and global economies.
The final chapters provide an
original argument that the State has both a moral duty and a moral right to
pursue this program of socio-economic justice (contra conservative and libertarian moral arguments), and that only
the measures necessary to implement this program lie within the morally
justifiable limits on the State's authority.
Though primarily a political
work, it spans most areas of
practical philosophy-including ethical, social, and legal theory; and
meta-ethics, moral psychology, and action theory. And though fundamentally a
philosophical work, it incorporates research from a number of fields-including decision
theory, economics, political science, and jurisprudence; primatology,
neuroscience, and psychology; and history, anthropology, sociology, and
ecology-and is sure to be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students.
James Sherman is a lecturer in the Program in
Ethics, Society, and Law at Trinity College, University of Toronto. He has been
a research fellow of the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics, and the
recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
fellowship. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the University
of Texas at Austin, and has published articles in the areas of moral,
political, and legal philosophy.
