School Of Thought: 101 Great Liberal Thinkers

209 Pages·2019·0.994 MB·Enlgish

by  Eamonn Butler

101 great liberal thinkers
SCHOOL OF
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School of Thought

SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
101 Great Liberal Thinkers
EAMONN BUTLER
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by
The Institute of Economic Affairs
2 Lord North Street
Westminster
London SW1P 3LB
in association with London Publishing Partnership Ltd
www.londonpublishingpartnership.co.uk
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding
of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding
the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.
Copyright © The Institute of Economic Affairs 2019
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.
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above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-255-36777-6 (interactive PDF)
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should be sought from the Director General at the address above.
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CONTENTS
The thinkers vii
About the author xviii
1 Introduction 1
What this book is about 1
Who this book is for 1
How this book is laid out 2
2 Liberalism and liberal thinkers 3
What is a liberal? 3
What is a liberal thinker? 7
Some of the key classical liberal debates 8
3 Ancient liberal thinkers 10
Early origins of liberalism 10
Medieval ideas of freedom 12
4 Early modern thinkers 15
5 The age of reason 31
6 Revolutionaries and radicals 55
7 The age of reform 77
v
CoNTENTS
8 The modern era 107
9 The free economy and society 119
10 Contemporary liberal thinkers 152
11 Conclusion 167
The liberal debate 167
Is this a liberal world? 168
12 101 more liberal quotations 169
About the IEA 184
vi
THE THINKERS
Ancient liberal thinkers
[1] Laozi (c. 600 bc)
The spontaneous organisation of society
[2] Pericles (495–429 bc)
The benefits of free trade and free movement
[3] Zhuang Zhou (369–286 bc)
The limits to legislators’ knowledge
[4] Ashoka the Great (304–232 bc)
Religious and political toleration
[5] Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
The natural law tradition
[6] Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406)
The importance of property rights and incentives
[7] Francisco de Vitoria (1486–1546) and the
Scholastics
Natural rights and property rights
[8] Francisco Suárez (1548–1617)
The limits of state legitimacy; natural rights
[9] Akbar I (1542–1605)
Religious tolerance
vii
THE THINKErS
Early modern thinkers
[10] Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634)
Limits to kingly power; rights of the accused; need for
independent judges
[11] Hugo Grotius (1583–1645)
Rights over one’s person and property
[12] Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
Right to self-protection; social contract theory;
right to depose tyrants
[13] John Milton (1608–1674)
Free speech and conscience
[14] John Lilburne (1614–1657) and
[15] Richard Overton (c. 1599–1664)
Right to life, liberty and property; equality before
the law
[16] Algernon Sidney (1622–1683)
Government exists for justice and liberty; right to
resist tyrannical laws
[17] John Locke (1632–1704)
State’s powers derive from individuals; property in
one’s own person
[18] Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–1694)
Sociality basis of natural law; rights make central
authority unnecessary
[19] William Wollaston (1659–1724)
Principles of property rights; the rights to life and the
pursuit of happiness
viii