Liberalism, neutrality and the politics of virtue
SEER. Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe
2013
16
1
41-58
ethics ; political power ; politics
Politics
http://www.nomos-zeitschriften.de/
English
Bibliogr.
"The relationship between politics and virtue has been a controversial issue. Some significant scholars make a sharp distinction between what is political and what is not, but others underline the impossibility of separating politics from virtue. This article aims to re-consider the problem of virtue in terms of liberal politics. In doing so, it distinguishes three different arguments, namely the ‘inescapability of virtue', ‘virtue lost' and ‘reclamation of virtue' arguments. The first argument underlines the impossibility of separating politics from virtue; the second shows the impossibility of virtuous politics in modern liberal politics; while the third criticises liberal neutrality and individualism which undermines virtue politics. This article offers in their place a Rawlsian solution which centralises justice as the first virtue of a well-ordered liberal society. It argues that, without negotiating fundamental rights and equal liberties, a Rawlsian solution transcends the limitations of liberal neutrality by articulating political virtuousness into liberalism. The result is that it concludes that liberal democracies would be politically virtuous without imposing any particular virtuous life conceptions. "
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