Beyond Liberalism; Author: Allen, R. T.; Hardback; Book

Author: Allen, R. T.
Hardback; Book
242 pages
Published: April 1998
Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 1560003553

Allen takes up Michael Polanyi's argument that negative liberty -- doing as one pleases so long as one does not impinge upon the equal liberty of others -- must and has led to destructivenihilism and a fierce reaction to collectivism. He shows how Polanyi's political philosophy evolved into a more positive concept of liberty, converging upon the archetypal conservatism of Edmund Burke. Allen examines Polanyi's and F.A. Hayek's thinking with respect to the nature, value, and foundations of liberty. For Allen, only Christianity, and certainly no modern philosophy, has a conception of the unique individual and his irreplaceable value and of a political order that transcends itself into the moral order. Beyond Liberalism challenges deeply ingrained notions of liberty and its meaThis work challenges deeply ingrained notions of liberty and its meaning in modern society. The author argues that a free society is held together by emotional bonds and the traditions and rituals that sustain them.