Everyday Ethics

In several previous articles, we discussed the theoretical principles that underlie our liberal system of government.  These principles include the values of autonomy, equality, and neutrality with regard to conceptions of the good life, as well as the role of the harm principle, paternalism, and legal moralism in limiting these values.  We now turn to [...]

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In the previous week, we have looked at the philosophically liberal foundations of our government, in order to better understand why we have the laws that we do.  We also evaluated the role of the harm principle in determining what sorts of activities we can rightly ban in a liberal society.  Before applying these considerations [...]

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In the previous article, we discussed the core principles of political liberalism, with the goal of using this framework to consider a variety of issues in applied moral problems.  But before we complete this task, there is another essential component of political liberalism that we ought to discuss.  The basis from which any act can [...]

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The word liberal is usually understood as a synonym for a Democrat in the United States.  Ironically, a liberal in the U.S. is more comparable to a conservative in the U.K.  Nonetheless, there is an important sense in which all Americans are political liberals.  This philosophical term has more to do with what we value [...]

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