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Liberalism And The Ethical And Logical Level Essay

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One of the fundamental contradictions and issues in Liberalism is the question of the power and neutrality of the state. Liberal neutrality can be understood as the idea that a neoliberal state should not promote any specific concept of perfectionism, social utopia or the ‘’good’’. This is concept is often used in critiques of multiculturalism and collective rights movements.

We will be discussing the theories of some liberal authors such as John Rawls, Locke, Mill, Nozick, and Waldron among others whose philosophies clash on the ethical and logical level. We will discuss the following proposal; ‘’the government can no more act… to advance human excellence, or the values of perfection… than it can to advance Catholicism or Protestantism, or any other religion’ (John Rawls). We will then attempt to answer the following questions; why do so many liberals think the state must be ‘neutral’ and what do they mean by it? And why do some liberals disagree? By the conclusion of this essay we aim to have discussed the different liberal stances on state neutrality, such as in classical liberalism or libertarianism. As well as having presented the social domains where state neutrality is proposed among other things.
In a first part, discuss various social contract and human nature theories in liberal discourse, paying specific attention to the differences in principles of theory.
In a second part, we will argue in favour of the rejection of the notion of state neutrality within the

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