Moral Foundations of Contemporary Liberalism

Abstract

This essay is an inquiry into the fundamentals of contemporary liberalism. I defend the following claim: the premises of contemporary liberal theory cannot avoid referring to the ideal of equality of individuals in some way. equality is a principle to orga­nize the fundamental level of the theory from which to derive the principles for organi­zing liberal institutions. To support these claims, I distinguish justificatory from perfectio­nist liberalism, and then look into some of the most relevant theories of contemporary political philosophy that provide the ethical basis for contemporary liberalism.

Keywords

• contemporary liberalism
• perfectionism
• impartiality
• neutrality
• equality