Shortly after the publication of the book, Larry Siedentop wrote an article in the Financial Times denouncing the ‘moral tepidity’ of the West. The West obsessively equated liberalism with secularism and neutrality, ignoring the Medieval period, which was associated with darkness, ignorance, and superstition. Siedentop’s book, appropriately titled 'Inventing the Individual', provides a new genealogy of liberalism, giving a completely novel account of how the seeds for the appearance of this...

When thinking of “the law,” the average person in continental Europe thinks of codexes and books. The criminal code, the civil code, the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB, or German Civil Code), the Code Civil, and so on are collections of legal rules that seem to be created by parliaments and governments in a top-down, rather than bottom-up, manner. The legal order the way we understand it in the twenty-first century and the way it is taught at universities thus appears to be an order that...

Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth-Century Progressive Thought is not a classic unitary manuscript in political theory but instead a collection of twelve independent essays by Michael Freeden, one of the foremost contemporary experts on liberalism. In this volume, Freeden explores questions of the role of political ideology, green thought, nationalism and the reconfiguration of the liberal tradition in the UK during the nineteenth century. In particular, he tackles the...

When Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises published Liberalism in 1927, the world, particularly Europe, was going through tumultuous times. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, arguably some of the grimmest, most brutal and destructive years in the history of humanity, are also rightfully considered the decades of antiliberal ideas. While classical liberalism had already ceased to govern the minds of intellectuals and the masses alike for a long time, alternative...

When we reflect on social contract theory and state of nature theory within political philosophy, John Locke is one of the first thinkers to come to mind. Of course, Locke was not the only thinker to have written on these two subjects. Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau also produced notable and influential accounts on this topic. By the state of nature theory, we refer to theories about the titular “natural state” of mankind before the formation and institution of government; in other...

BOOK REVIEW - Francis Fukuyama "Liberalism and Its Discontents" (2022) By Nataliia Bovkun Liberalism and Its Discontents is the latest book by Francis Fukuyama, the most celebrated liberal thinker of our time. The author applies his rigorous analytical approach to the challenges faced by liberal democracies today and offers a nuanced and insightful analysis of the sources of discontent and potential solutions to these problems. He puts forward a convincing and laconic argument regarding...

BOOK REVIEW - Joshua Cherniss "Liberalism in Dark Times" (2021) By Tirso Virgos On the first page of Liberalism in Dark Times, the latest book of Joshua Cherniss, we find a quote from Isaiah Berlin. This is unsurprising because it is one of the most widely cited liberal thinkers of the 20th century. However, the second quote belongs to Indalecio Prieto, one of the most famous members of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) during the Second Republic and the Civil War. It is an...

BOOK REVIEW - Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) By Mathilde Berger-Perrin What would happen, in a world where interventionism is rife, and where the masses feed off the creativity and production of a few, if all the entrepreneurs, scientists, businessmen, artists, and working elites went on strike? What if we stopped the motor of the world? What if Atlas, the Greek mythological figure carrying the world on his shoulders, got fed up and simply decided not to care anymore? Such is Ayn Rand’s...

BOOK REVIEW - Helena Rosenblatt "The Lost History of Liberalism" (1958) By Tirso Virgos Liberal policies, liberal democracies, and even liberal dispositions are different ideas in different countries, but they share a series of common principles that define every strand of liberalism. At the thin core of liberal ideology, we always find the idea of protection of individual freedom from interference as well as a focus on the idea of the rights of each citizen. Regardless of the commitment to...

BOOK REVIEW - Francis Fukuyama ""The End of History and the Last Man" (1992) By Luke Hallam Francis Fukuyama’s book The End of History and the Last Man (1992) has a well-earned reputation for its discussion of the strengths of liberalism and the underlying claim that liberal democracy represents history’s final destination. At the same time, it is also one of the most insightful works about the weaknesses of liberalism, with the less popular idea of the “last man” who emerges at the end of...

BOOK REVIEW - Isaiah Berlin "Two Concepts of Liberty" (1958) By Luke Hallam The twentieth-century thinker Isaiah Berlin was more interested in the history of philosophy than in philosophy per se. His most famous contribution in this vein is his 1958 essay “Two Concepts of Liberty.” On the surface, it is an attempt to distinguish between two types of freedom: one “negative” or "freedom from", and the other “positive” or "freedom to". More specifically, however, Berlin is concerned with the...

BOOK REVIEW - John Locke "A Letter Concerning Toleration" (1689) By Nayeli L. Riano Toleration is a concept that we consider commonsensical today. Religious toleration, moreover, is a fundamental concept that many of us would consider essential for the human right to worship freely. However, this was not always the reality. What we recognise as a general custom of humanity has evolved from years of debate over what it means to be tolerant and toward whom. Also, we as a society still have a...

BOOK REVIEW - Adam Smith "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" By Patrick Van Schie The Theory of Moral Sentiments is not Adam Smith’s best-known work among  the  general public – that, of course, would be his economic  analysis, The Wealth of Nations,  whose  (abbreviated)  title  many  know,  even if they are unfamiliar with its contents – but it is certainly a standard liberal work. Although Smith owes his enduring fame to The Wealth of Nations – it is thanks to this book that he is...

BOOK REVIEW - John Milton "Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England" By Mara Pepine The early half of the seventeenth century in England was marked by Charles I’s  rule,  the  English  Civil  War, and following it the Cromwellian  regime. The English Civil War had its roots in a religious war between Catholics and Protestants, a conflict that defines much of English history. Once the Protestants came into power, they...

BOOK REVIEW - Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes "The Light That Failed: A Reckoning" By Mara Pepine The title of this book, The Light That Failed: A Reckoning, is directly inspired by the novel The Light That Failed written by Rudyard Kipling in 1891, depicting a tragic unrequited love story. What Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev hope to achieve is to explain how liberalism became a victim instead of the victor it was purported to be after the Cold War.1A  preliminary  look  will  highlight...

BOOK REVIEW - Jonathan Rauch "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth" By Luke Hallam This book by the journalist Jonathan Rauch seeks to make sense of the threats facing liberal societies today – threats including the destructive convulsions of Donald Trump  and  his  Make  American  Great  Again  movement,  a  global  army  of social media trolls, and the emboldened attacks against liberal cornerstones such as expertise, free speech, and diversity of opinion. Rauch is no...

BOOK REVIEW - Albert Camus "The Rebel" By Luke Hallam With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, thousands of readers turned to the French philosopher Albert Camus’ most famous novel, The Plague. They were attracted by its portrayal of ordinary people heroically battling pestilence in a daily slog of sacrifice, perseverance, and hope – and with good reason. But as visionary as The Plague remains, it is The Rebel  (1951),  the  final  book-length  essay  Camus  published  during  his...

BOOK REVIEW - Johan Norberg "Open: The Story of Human Progress: How Collaboration and Curiosity Shaped Humankind" By Adam Mazik Johan  Norberg  makes  a  strong  statement:  every  single  time  when  societies and people have experienced an increase of wealth, innovations, and living standards, the reason was a broadly understood ‘openness’, of course, relative to the specific time. By openness, the Swede means openness towards trade, immigration, and the exchange and expression of...

BOOK REVIEW - Michael Huemer "The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey" By Adam Mazik What is political authority? Why is the state allowed to do certain things that no person or organisation can? Is there a logical explanation for this? And if not: what then? Huemer’s book is intellectually engaging, logical, compelling, and well-written. It is an excellent option for anyone starting their adventure into political philosophy. While the...

BOOK REVIEW - Friedrich August von Hayek "Road to Serfdom" By Adam Mazik The Road To Serfdom is arguably Hayek’s most important book, and certainly the one that has had the most influence. The main thrust of the book is the demonstration that economic planning in its last consequence must lead to a totalitarian state. Using both abstract and historical examples, Hayek shows the impossibility of a democratic socialist system in which the freedoms and rights of the individual are respected,...

BOOK REVIEW - Deirdre McCloskey "Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All" By Adam Mazik Liberalism is in danger, and liberal values and democracy are facing many challenges in today’s world. McCloskey’s book is the antidote to the ideology of populism, which is trying to make illiberal solutions for today’s challenges, and against the “big state” that is so loudly proclaimed in today’s public spheres and fora of exchange. McCloskey...

BOOK REVIEW - Milton Friedman "Capitalism and Freedom" By Adam Mazik What is the proper role of the government? What economic system should we follow in order to prosper and progress in freedom and order? What are the key services a government needs to provide for society? What is the best way to create a  fair and innovative system of education? What is the government’s role in monetary matters? And should we determine who is allowed to enter into a certain profession through the means of...

BOOK REVIEW - Robert Nozick "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" By Adam Mazik What is the ideal state? Is it the "soziale Marktwirtschaft" of Ludwig Erhard? Is it perhaps the Scandinavian model?  Maybe it is the  "night watchman" state... Or is the ideal system having no state at all? Anarchy,  State,  and  Utopia  (1974)  by  Robert  Nozick is an intellectually engaging work by a bright libertarian radical. To this day, Nozick’s magnum opus is one of the most important—and the most...

BOOK REVIEW - Friedrich von Hayek "Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 2: The Mirage of Social Justice" By Adam Mazik To the modern person, the term social justice almost seems self-explanatory. From the moment one gets interested in politics, "social justice" seems to have always been part of the argumentation of politicians from both the left and the right. But what does "social justice" mean? And is it always used in the same way? What is the relationship between "justice" and "social...