Moral selfhood in the liberal tradition : the politics of individuality / Paul Fairfield.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Beginning with a wide-ranging discussion of liberal philosophers, Fairfield proposes that liberalism requires a complete reconception of moral selfhood, one that accommodates elements of the contemporary critiques without abandoning liberal individualism.

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CHOICE Review

In recent years there has been a growing consensus among philosophers that the traditional Western liberal concept of moral selfhood based on "atomic individualism" cannot be justified metaphysically, empirically, or morally. Many view that demise as marking the end of liberalism and a decisive victory for communitarianism and/or socialism. However, philosophers steadfast in the liberal tradition, including John Rawls, have argued that liberalism can survive intact without baggage left by 18th-century physics. Fairfield, along with others, has recast individualism on a nonatomic foundation based on hermeneutics, phenomenology, semiotics, and/or pragmatism. Although this general line of argument is fairly well trodden, only a few have been able to articulate that debate and the emerging thesis in terms that undergraduate students can understand. Fairfield's well-crafted book does the job nicely. He places the whole debate over "atomic individuality" into historical context by tracing its origins to classical contractarians (Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, and Kant), utilitarians (Bentham, James, and J.S. Mill), and more recent neoclassical liberals (Rawls and Nozick), providing a well-focused analysis that students can easily follow. Fairfield's account of the hermeneutic approach and its concept of "rational agency" is about as lucid as can be expected from a doctrine traditionally shrouded in convoluted verbiage and obscurity. Highly recommended. General readers; undergraduates through faculty. R. F. White; College of Mount St. Joseph