Overview
Provides an up-to-date account of liberalism written from a standpoint that is currently underrepresented
Offers a focus on human psychology as a central part of the tradition of liberalism
Brings techniques from literary criticism and a close attention to the power of language to support argument
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Liberalism
- Liberal thinkers
- Human nature
- Niccolo Machiavelli
- Western individualism
- The age of reason
- Thomas Hobbes
- John Locke
- Adam Smith
- David Hume
- Edmund Burke
- The Englightenment
- French Revolutionary thinking
- Classical economics
- David Ricardo
- Jean-Baptiste Say
- William Stanley Jevons
- The Austrian School
- The Chicago School
About this book
The book contends that liberalism needs to be grounded in realism, and that it has been derailed whenever economists have deviated from an explicitly realist understanding of human nature, individualism and property rights. It argues that the cause of liberalism was compromised by errors in economic reasoning by such major figures as David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall, A.C. Pigou, and John Maynard Keynes. In diagnosing what has gone wrong for liberalism in the twenty-first century, The Defenders of Liberty argues against substituting mathematical abstraction for causal realism; it opposes interventionist central banking; it seeks to recover economic liberalism from social and political liberalism, which are somewhat unrelated schools of thought; it resists a view of human nature rooted in selfishness or atomised individualism; and finally alerts defenders of freedom to the ruthless but effective language games played by their opponents.
This book will be of interest to the educated general reader as well as undergraduates and postgraduates in disciplines such as economics, political theory and philosophy.
Reviews
“The Defenders of Liberty is an interesting and engaging book. It will captivate the reader and it offers a rather good introduction not only to the issues that shape and surround the question of human freedom and liberty, but also as a good gateway to introduce readers into both political thought and economics as well.” (voegelinview.com, July 16, 2020)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Defenders of Liberty
Book Subtitle: Human Nature, Individualism, and Property Rights
Authors: Neema Parvini
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39452-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-39451-6Published: 01 May 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-39454-7Published: 01 May 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-39452-3Published: 01 May 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 318
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations
Topics: Economics, general, Political Theory, Political Philosophy