LIBERTY AND THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.[1]
THE purpose of this paper is to discuss the revision of political philosophy which has been undertaken as a part of the work of English Idealism. This revision claims to be not only a more adequate statement of social theory but also to give a sound theoretical basis for political liberalism. It originated, in fact, in an effort to restate the traditional liberalism of the revolutionary period in terms of the Hegelian philosophy, and with an eye to avoiding the factors which, even as early as the middle of the nineteenth century, had brought this earlier liberalism to decay. The special question to be considered is how far the idealist theory of the state is really liberal. For purposes of illustration I shall use Professor Bosanquet's presentation of the theory in his Philosophical Theory of the State.
The fatal weakness of the earlier liberalism lay in the fact that its theory created an antithesis between the liberty of the individual and his restraint by social institutions. The theory of natural rights conceived the individual as the possessor of rights by virtue of his nature as a human being and hence prior to all forms of social organization. The hypothetical state of nature which preceded such an organization was conceived as a state of ideally complete liberty, all restraints by organized force being absent. Government arose by consent or contract; as was commonly said, the individual gave up some of his natural liberty in order that he might enjoy the remainder in greater security. And hence the paradox: The individual supposedly gives up something and yet in fact he has more of it after the surrender than he had before. The dilemma is indeed quite unescapable. If liberty consists in the absence of restraint, then liberty must grow progressively less as restraints are extended and organized. And since government is quite inconceivable without restraint somewhere, and the possibility of
- ↑ With some omissions this paper was read before the Western Philosophical Association, in St. Louis, April 21, 1916.
