Freedom, Capitalism and Religion
Progressive Essays and Thinking on Capitalism and Freedom and Religion
This site is devoted to progressive ideas about liberty, capitalism and religion.
This site is created and maintained by Howard I. Schwartz, Ph.D. Please feel free to send me your thoughts or ideas email: Howard Schwartz.
You might also want to check out my blog. Discussions include: Originalism, Is There Right To Die?, Does Dick Have a Right to His Gun?, The Right to Smoke in Belmont...
Rethinking Liberty: Reclaiming a Progressive View of Liberty
Too much discourse today in political discussion and on the Internet assumes that liberty means, and has always meant, free markets, minimal government and maximum individual rights. This view represents a mistaken understanding of the liberty tradition and has destructive consequences for modern life.
This site is devoted to a more thoughtful and complex understanding of liberty, one that sees liberty and economic freedom as two separate and not necessarily identical traditions that have been conflated.
The alternative view developed here argues:
You might also want to check out my blog. Discussions include: Originalism, Is There Right To Die?, Does Dick Have a Right to His Gun?, The Right to Smoke in Belmont...
Rethinking Liberty: Reclaiming a Progressive View of Liberty
Too much discourse today in political discussion and on the Internet assumes that liberty means, and has always meant, free markets, minimal government and maximum individual rights. This view represents a mistaken understanding of the liberty tradition and has destructive consequences for modern life.
This site is devoted to a more thoughtful and complex understanding of liberty, one that sees liberty and economic freedom as two separate and not necessarily identical traditions that have been conflated.
The alternative view developed here argues:
- that liberty carries with it notions of responsibility and obligation
- that markets can at times be as coersive or more coersive than governments, and
- that the substance of liberty has to be defined by each generation in response to its own values and circumstances
Theoretical Essays
"Liberty and the Public Good: Endorsing Suicide and Slavery as Part of a Free Society" (spoof on libertarians and utilitarians view of liberty)
"Why Can't My Daughter Drive A Tank? Reflections on the Meaning of Liberty and Freedom in a Civil Society."
argument that all laws infringe liberty and therefore appeals to "rights" by themselves are meaningless without a framework for deciding what's in and not in liberty.
"Liberty is not Freedom To Do What You Like:
How Notions of Public Good Constrain Liberty In John Locke and the Early Liberty Tradition."
shows that the liberty tradition took values like the public good seriously in understanding the meaning of liberty in a civil society
Why “Market Liberals” Are Not “The True Liberals”
contests the view that market liberals are "the true liberals"
"To Whom is the Corporation Responsible?"
explores notions of corporate social responsibility and particularly the dilemma of defining who are the stakeholders in a corporation
"Liberty and the Public Good: Endorsing Suicide and Slavery as Part of a Free Society" (spoof on libertarians and utilitarians view of liberty)
"Why Can't My Daughter Drive A Tank? Reflections on the Meaning of Liberty and Freedom in a Civil Society."
argument that all laws infringe liberty and therefore appeals to "rights" by themselves are meaningless without a framework for deciding what's in and not in liberty.
"Liberty is not Freedom To Do What You Like:
How Notions of Public Good Constrain Liberty In John Locke and the Early Liberty Tradition."
shows that the liberty tradition took values like the public good seriously in understanding the meaning of liberty in a civil society
Why “Market Liberals” Are Not “The True Liberals”
contests the view that market liberals are "the true liberals"
"To Whom is the Corporation Responsible?"
explores notions of corporate social responsibility and particularly the dilemma of defining who are the stakeholders in a corporation
This site is dedicated to developing and promoting progressive ideas about liberty, capitalism and religion.
Essays on Freedom, Liberty and Religion
A quick summary of the themes and topics covered in essays on this site.
History and Liberty
There is an interesting and complex relationship between the historical understanding of liberty and rights and the theoretical question of how a liberal society should implement freedom. These essays explore the intersecting historical and theoretical issues involved in thinking about liberty in a free society.
Natural Rights, Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence.
One of the central questions under debate in recent years concerns the notions of rights embodied in American writings leading up to and embodied in the Declaration of Independence. These essays challenge what have come to be settled ways of thinking about American rights and the Declaration. The essays argue that the pre-revolutionary writers were in fact ambivalent about natural rights in some significant ways and had diverging ideas about the foundation of American rights.
These historically oriented essays, which are part of a book in progress, have implications for the larger way in which Americans think about the rights embodied in the Constitution and American life.
A quick summary of the themes and topics covered in essays on this site.
History and Liberty
There is an interesting and complex relationship between the historical understanding of liberty and rights and the theoretical question of how a liberal society should implement freedom. These essays explore the intersecting historical and theoretical issues involved in thinking about liberty in a free society.
Natural Rights, Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence.
One of the central questions under debate in recent years concerns the notions of rights embodied in American writings leading up to and embodied in the Declaration of Independence. These essays challenge what have come to be settled ways of thinking about American rights and the Declaration. The essays argue that the pre-revolutionary writers were in fact ambivalent about natural rights in some significant ways and had diverging ideas about the foundation of American rights.
These historically oriented essays, which are part of a book in progress, have implications for the larger way in which Americans think about the rights embodied in the Constitution and American life.
- Part I:
"Thomas Jefferson's Alternative Theory of Rights and the Declaration of Independence"
Download / Read More - Part II:
"Early Ambivalence Towards Natural Rights Theory in the Colonies Before the Revolution"
Download / Read More - Part III:
"Diverging Theories of Natural Rights Before the Revolution."
Dowload / Read More - New Essay: Part IV:
"Precariousness of History:What Do We Know about Jefferson on Locke?"
Download / Read More - Part V
The First Contintenal Congress and the Attempt To Achieve Consensus
Dowload / Read More
Theoretical Essays (thematically)
These essays explore more theoretical questions about the nature of liberty--what it means and should mean to a society that cares about freedom and responsibility. The essays critique the simplistic understandings of liberty that assume freedom necessarily means small government, maximal individual choice and unconstrained markets.
Thematically, the essays cover the following topics.
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