Contributions to liberal theory

This is an (partial) overview of individuals that contributed to the development of liberal theory on a worldwide scale and therefore are strongly associated with the liberal tradition and instrumental in the exposition of political liberalism as a philosophy. The contributors are listed in approximately chronological order, beginning from the roots of realism, rationalism and humanism in the Renaissance, all movements which were influential in the creation of what is thought of as liberal political theory. These include Desiderius Erasmus, Hugo Grotius and Baruch Spinoza through the Age of Reason's English philosopher John Locke and the Frenchman Voltaire and other philosophers of The Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the individual and the nation, as opposed to the family and the state, as being the fundamental units of law, politics and economy.

"Humanism"

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence, 1469-1527), best known for his Il Principe was the founder of realist political philosophy, advocated republican government, citizen armies, division of power, protection of personal property, and restraint of government expenditure as being necessary to the liberties of a republic. He wrote extensively on the need for individual initiative - virtu - as an essential characteristic of stable government. He argued that liberty was the central good which government should protect, and that "good people" would make good laws, where as people who had lost their virtu could maintain their liberties only with difficulty. His Discourses on Livy outlined realism as the central idea of political study and favored "Republics" over "Principalties".

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Anti-statis liberals see Machiavelli's distrust what they see as his main message:: that he spoke for a strong state under a strong leader, who should use any means to establish his position, whereas liberalism is an ideology of individual freedom and voluntary choices.

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However, often people associate Machiavelli as a proponent of the anti-liberal idea that "the end justifies the means".

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• Contributing literature:
• Il Principe, 1513 (The Prince, http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/tprnc11.txt)
• Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, 1512-1517 (Discourse on the First Decade of Titus Livius)

Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus (Netherlands, 1466-1536) was an advocate of the doctrine now known as humanism, critic of entrenched interests, irrationality and superstition. Erasmusian societies formed across Europe, to some extent in response to the turbulence of the Reformation.

Related Topics:
Desiderius Erasmus - Humanism - Reformation

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He dealt with the freedom of the will, a crucial point. In his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio (1524), he analyzes with great cleverness and good humour the Lutheran exaggeration of the obvious limitations on human freedom.

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• Contributing literature
• Lof der Zotheid, 1509 (The Praise of Folly, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1509erasmus-folly.html)
• De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio, 1524

Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius or Hugo de Groot (Netherlands, 1583-1645), laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law, in his book Mare Liberum (Free Seas) formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade, and in De jure belli ac pacis libri tres (Of laws of war and peace) presented a theory of just war and argued that all nations are bound by the principles of natural law.

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Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes (England, 1588-1679) theorized that government is the result of individual actions and human traits, and that it was motivated primarily by "interest", a term which would become crucial in the development of a liberal theory of government and political economy, since it is the foundation of the idea that individuals can be self-governing and self-regulating. His work Leviathan, did not advocate this viewpoint, but instead that only a strong government could restrain unchecked interest: it did, however, advance a proto-liberal position in arguing for an inalienable "right of nature," the right to defend oneself, even against the state. Though it is problematic to classify Hobbes himself as a liberal, his work influenced Locke, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and many other later liberals.

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Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza (Netherlands, 1632-1677) is in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and Tractatus Politicus a proto-liberal defending the value of separation of church and state as well as forms of democracy. In the first mentioned book, Spinoza expresses an early criticism of religious intolerance and a defense of secular government. Spinoza was a thoroughgoing determinist who held that absolutely everything that happens occurs through the operation of necessity. For him, even human behaviour is fully determined, freedom being our capacity to know we are determined and to understand why we act as we do. So freedom is not the possibility to say "no" to what happens to us but the possibility to say "yes" and fully understand why things should necessarily happen that way.

Related Topics:
Baruch Spinoza - Separation of church and state - Democracy - Secular - Government - Determinist - Necessity

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• Contributing literature:
• Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, 1670 (Theologico-Political Treatise, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/989)
• Tractatus Politcus, 1677 (Political Treatise)