Benjamin Constant, The Road to Bonapartism, some Cromwell and some Marx
digressionsimpressions.substack.com
As regular readers know I think it’s a mistake to treat Locke as the founder of liberalism. To do so, however, is to devalue toleration as originating and intrinsic to liberalism. I have started to promote Adam Smith (alongside William Robertson) as the first to use ‘liberal’ in a modern sense and this allows one to emphasize liberalism as an ameliorative response to warlike and imperial, mercantile capitalism (and to celebrate federalism, moral equality, rule of law, commerce, etc.) Very sophisticated scholars scoff at this hunt for fathers and starting points, of course.
Benjamin Constant, The Road to Bonapartism, some Cromwell and some Marx
Benjamin Constant, The Road to Bonapartism…
Benjamin Constant, The Road to Bonapartism, some Cromwell and some Marx
As regular readers know I think it’s a mistake to treat Locke as the founder of liberalism. To do so, however, is to devalue toleration as originating and intrinsic to liberalism. I have started to promote Adam Smith (alongside William Robertson) as the first to use ‘liberal’ in a modern sense and this allows one to emphasize liberalism as an ameliorative response to warlike and imperial, mercantile capitalism (and to celebrate federalism, moral equality, rule of law, commerce, etc.) Very sophisticated scholars scoff at this hunt for fathers and starting points, of course.