Toward a Liberalism / Richard E. Flathman.

• Author: Flathman, Richard E.
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca : : Cornell University Press,, 1989.; ©1989.
• Year of Publication: 2018; 1989
• Language: English
• Series: Cornell paperbacks
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (223 pages)
• Notes: Includes index.
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction --; I Theory and Practice, Skepticism and Liberalism --; 2 Liberalism and Authority --; 3 Citizenship and Authority: A Chastened View of Citizenship --; 4 Liberalism and the Human Good of Freedom --; 5 Moderating Rights --; 6 The Theory of Rights and the Practice of Abortion --; 7 Egalitarian Blood and Skeptical Turnips --; Index
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 1501727826; 0801422434; 1501726277
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Richard E. Flathman.

In Toward a Liberalism, Richard Flathman shows why and how political theory can contribute to the quality of moral and political practice without violating, as empiricist- and idealist-based theories tend to do, liberal commitments to individuality and plurality. Exploring the tense but inevitable relationship between liberalism and authority, he advances a theory of democratic citizenship tempered by appreciation of the ways in which citizenship is implicated with and augments authority. Flathman examines the relationship of individual rights to freedom on one hand and to authority and power on the other, rejecting the quest for a single homogenous and authoritative liberal theory.