Questions
- Is ‘toleration’ a coherent concept?
- Can the justification for the state be reduced to ‘mutual advantage’ – that is, the
combined effects of the pursuit of self-interest? - Can you believe in moral rights if you do not believe in God?
- Can there be a utilitarian theory of rights?
References
Hobbes, T. (1991) Leviathan(ed. C.B. Macpherson) London: Penguin.
Kant, I. (1996) Practical Philosophy(ed. M. Gregor) Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Locke, J. (1988) Two Treatises of Government(ed. Peter Laslett) Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
McGrath, A. (1988) Reformation Thought: An IntroductionOxford: Blackwell.
Mill, J.S. (1991) On Liberty and Other Essays(ed. J. Gray) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nozick, R. (1974) Anarchy, State, and UtopiaOxford: Blackwell.
Plamenatz, J. (1992) Man and Society: Political and Social Theories from Machiavelli to
Marx. Vol. 1: From the Middle Ages to LockeLondon: Longman.
Ross, W. (1930) The Right and the GoodOxford: Oxford University Press.
Smart, J.J.C. and Williams, B. (1973) Utilitarianism: For and AgainstCambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Wolff, R.P. (1970) In Defense of Anarchism New York: Harper & Row.Further reading
There are a couple of good, short, introductions dealing with liberalism as a whole: John
Gray, Liberalism (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995), and David Manning,
Liberalism(London: Dent, 1976). Of the major thinkers discussed in this chapter, the Oxford
University Press ‘Past Masters’ series provides very short, useful overviews, written by major
scholars in the field, with guidance on further reading: Richard Tuck, Hobbes(1989); John
Dunn, Locke(1984); Roger Scruton, Kant(1982); John Dinwiddy, Bentham(1989). More
generally on the social contract tradition (which does encompass Locke and Kant), the
following are helpful: Michael Lessnoff, Social Contract(London: Macmillan, 1986); Jean
Hampton, Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition(Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1986); Patrick Riley, Will and Political Legitimacy: A Critical Exposition of Social
Contract Theory in Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel(Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1982). On utilitarianism, see: Geoffrey Scarre, Utilitarianism(London:
Routledge, 1996); Anthony Quinton, Utilitarian Ethics(London: Duckworth, 1989); and for
a very readable debate between a utilitarian and a critic of utilitarianism see Smart and
Williams (1973).Chapter 8 Liberalism 191