Philosophical view
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To take the philosophical view in common speech means to observe without passion.
Philosophers are fond of describing the stands they take on particular philosophical disputes as views. They also call them theories. These phrases are instances of philosophical jargon.
[edit] Liberalism
Liberalism can be regarded as a an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. It represents the early attempt of letting loose of feudal traditions like paternalism by the monarch (or state) and personal restrictions like of thought, conscience and expression. Instead there should be a separation of powers and freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. These rights and freedoms are the first principles of a free and just society as defined by liberalism. In order to make liberalism work, individual liberties, concerning politics and economics, and the conceding of human rights to every individual have to be guaranteed by the state. So liberalism guarantees us certain fundamental freedoms that we may exercise and enjoy up to the point where they interfere with the free exercising and enjoyment of other peoples liberties.
The historic roots of philosophic liberalism can be traced back to the humanism and indivudalism that began to challenge the authority of the church during the Renaissance as well as the following period of enlightenment when the people started to think for themselves. This was the time when the role of naturally-given human rights came up to exist. It was said, that every human being has the same human rights which he cannot be deprived of. So rights were not anymore given by god or any of his representatives but by nature. This also meant that the people now were responsible for their governance by a social contract instead of "divine power". The most important representatives of liberalism at that time were John Locke, Jean-Jaques-Rousseau ("Contrat Social") and Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès ("What is the 3. estate?"), Montesquieu and Immanuel Kant. The political roots of liberalism can be traced back to the French Revolution when things like feudal privileges of the monarch and the church, tariff barriers, a.s.o. were abolished and instead established equality before the law and freedom of trade. This process was temporarily stopped in 1794 because democracy was abolished under Robespierre but the idea's of the revolution lived on and could not be stopped. The term "Liberalism" itself may has been used first in a political sense as a noun by the editors of the Spanish Constitution of 1812. They named themselves the "Liberales" in order to express their opposition to the Spanish monarchy.
Liberalism claims that the people can decide, who they want to be governed by since the old believe of the power given to a sovereign by god has lost its legitimation in the time of enlightenment. According to the liberal theory, the state is a human institution which gets its legitimation from the will of its people and therefore has the responsibility to act in their favor. The executive power is given to the people to make sure that absolutism is abolished once and for all. And in order to introduce constitutional legality, the parliament was created. It represents the central institution of the liberal state. But this central institution is not supposed to represent interests or wishes but only rationality in favor of the people. Despite the fact, that the administration had to be changed, a law had also to be made according to the needs of the people. There were no more privileges or disadvantages for anyone because everyone had to be equal before law. A special place in a constitutional state practising liberalism had the basic rights like right of privacy, right of property, and the freedom of opinion. These basic rights were supposed to enable the free individuals to make contracts with each other in order to regulate their "relationship". This shows that in a liberal theory the state's task is to establish a general rule, in which the people can move and do what they want to do.
The economic aspect of liberalism can be explained by theory of the self-determination of the economy. The idea is, that the economy would develop to the benefit of everyone by leaving it on its own resources. The state is supposed to deal with all obstacles which might interfere with the well-being of the economy but, nevertheless, should mostly stay out of the economy itself. The introduction of the freedom of trade and "freedom of tolls" had a postive impact on the economy.
