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F. A. Hayek argued that there could be no freedom of press “if the instruments of printing will be under authorities control, no freedom of assembly if the needed areas are so handled, no independence of movement in case the means of transport are a govt monopoly” (Liberalism pp).
As Thomas Paine wrote in ‘Common Perception, ‘ “Government even in its best condition is a important evil; in the worst condition an insupportable one… ” (Sturgis pp). Thomas Jefferson focused on creating an independent citizenry capable of maintaining the democratic republic, and he found his key in the yeoman player, believing “that the self-sufficient landowner had the ability to progress himself and therefore treasure his freedom” (Sturgis pp).
Bill Godwin, creator of ‘Political Justice’ 1798, and hailed by many because the father of English anarchism, blended earlier forms of classical liberalism into his opinion in “the self-perfectibility of man plus the law of progress reflected Enlightenment focus on reason and evolution” (Sturgis pp).
Godwin’s wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, paved the way for traditional liberal feminism by broadening natural privileges theory to apply to females with her 1792 work ‘Vindication in the Rights of Women’ in which she brands “women since co-inheritors of the individualist custom with men” (Sturgis pp).
Perhaps Ruben Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, is definitely the single greatest window into classical liberalism, representing the crossroads of English, French, and The german language strains of thought (Sturgis pp). The son of James Work, utilitarian and author from the first The english language textbook of economics, “Mill represents the English traditional liberal traditions of freedom by alert against the tyranny of opinion that silences other noises and asking for a form of perceptive toleration”(Sturgis pp). Mill displays sympathy for the French traditions of self-rule by creating an honest sphere of privacy in his theory, a place for each individual that the state and many cannot feel, thus, Mill is suggesting limitation from the state (Sturgis pp). Sturgis writes
His wrestling resulted in a pessimistic philosophy even more aware of social entropy than evolution, with later socialistic themes most likely anticipating contemporary liberalism. His synthesis of different strains of thought, nevertheless , underscores the consistency but the diversity of the rich classical open-handed tradition. His publications also mark the final of the climb of classical liberalism” (Sturgis pp).
Ayn Rand’s, 1905-1982, unique type of individualism was created by her personal experience with communist totalitarianism and her frustration with the West’s drift towards socialism (Sturgis pp). In “For the New Intellectual” she produces:
Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. That leaves just about every man liberated to choose the work he likes, to focus on it, to trade his product for the product of others… His success depends on the target value of his work and the rationality of those who also recognize that value” (Sturgis pp)
Rand argued that not any individual should certainly live another, that all persons’ highest meaningful ends was their own pleasure, and that any kind of idea of a group rather than that of the individual vulnerable every person (Sturgis pp). 20 years ago, nine years after her death, your woman was outlined as second in a Gallop Survey with regards to influential authors in America, exceeded only by the Bible
Although there are numerous philosophies relating to liberalism, it can be ultimately grounded in the opinion of person freedom.
Functions Cited
Sturgis, Amy L. “The Go up, Decline, and Reemergence of Classical
Liberalism. ” The LockeSmith Commence. 1994. http://www.belmont.edu/lockesmith/essay.html
Liberalism. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism
