Well, I’ve finally completed the first draft of my first dissertation chapter, chapter two (chapter one being the introduction which I will write later). This is the central chapter of the dissertation. I’m hoping to get it published as a separate journal article as well. The working title is “Eudaimonia, Virtue, and the Right to Liberty.” Comments welcome. For more information about my dissertation, see this post.
Abstract
The paper is a dissertation chapter. It seeks to build on the work of Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl in developing an Aristotelian liberalism, which holds that the right to liberty is a metanormative principle necessary for protecting the possibility of self-direction, a necessary condition for all forms of eudaimonia (human well-being, flourishing, happiness). Contra Rasmussen and Den Uyl, however, it will be argued that rights are first and foremost a set of interpersonal moral principles the respecting of which is a necessary and constitutive part of human flourishing. The natural right to liberty is a normative safeguard for that feature common to all forms of human flourishing and necessary for moral agency as such: self-direction. For an action to count as virtuous, and therefore constitutive of a life of well-being, it needs be chosen not only because it is right and good but chosen freely and because we desire it. As rational, political, and social animals we ought to conduct our common affairs through public discourse, rational persuasion, and voluntary cooperation rather than through violence or the threat thereof. Liberty and respecting the equal liberty of others are thus essential and constitutive parts of one’s own eudaimonia. Rights-violating behavior not only infringes on or destroys the moral agency of the patient but also harms the well-being of the agent.
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Political Science PhD
