Norms of Liberty:
A Perfectionist Basis For Non-Perfectionist Politics
by Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press 2005, XVIII+358 pages
ISBN 0-271-02701-0
(Paperback), $25.00

http://www.amazon.com/Norms-Liberty-Perfectionist-Non-Perfectionist-Politics/dp/0271027010

Liberalism is the ideology of the West, and the West tries to impose its ideology on all other regions of the world in order to supersede theirs. Both of the claims are false, say Doug Rasmussen and Doug den Uyl in their book Norms of Liberty. Liberalism to them is foremost a logical consequence deriving from the fact that many competing moral systems wish to coexist peacefully. In other words, Rasmussen and Den Uyl go beyond the historical perspective – which, by the way, they do not discard – and stress the logical point (p.14). The peaceful coexistence is the main problem for liberalism, they state. While all other political ideologies try to realize their "own and only blessing" moral system, liberalism strives for a tolerant coexistence of individual ways of life (human flourishing) by looking for universally binding metanorms (XIV).

Which metanorms will serve this end is the central question of the book. The reader is extensively informed about the main messages of the authors after having read five chapters, which is part one out of three. This was well intended by the authors, whose book thus reaches different readerships. Part I is addressed to those who wish to become acquainted with the position and main theses of Rasmussen and Den Uyl. Part II provides the reader with further arguments that support their variant of Neo-Aristotelianism, whereas part III is a discussion of critics of their position.

For those less familiar with Neo-Aristotelianism, one could say that Rasmussen and Den Uyl present an individualistic-centred Aristotelianism. Unlike Aristotle they do not believe that the "universally best form of human flourishing" (79), (eudaimonia 86) can be known. Hence it should be left to each individual to take the road to happiness he/she subjectively prefers. It is liberalism, the authors state, that offers the platform where conduct is regulated such "that conditions might be obtained where moral action can take place" (34). Consequently, liberalism is not a moral system among others, it is not ethic writ large. It is the political framework within which moral systems of all sorts can take place as long as they do not counteract tolerant coexistence. Similar to several other natural rights approaches in libertarianism - Rothbard, Hoppe, Narveson and others - Rasmussen and Den Uyl put forward a functional explanation of property, i.e., they raise the point that man cannot but appropriate goods for survival. Another consequence of this is that ownership is not an end in itself, rather it is "the legal expression of the legitimate exploitation of opportunities" (98) One may put it that the right to act precedes the right to own, i.e. that the right to act is constitutive to the right to own.

Readers familiar with Austrian Economics sometimes are under the impression that they read a restated Aristotle through Austrian glasses. Individualism and subjectivism are core elements in the thinking of Rasmussen and Den Uyl. Therefore it does not come as a surprise, when we are taught that a thing in itself is without any intrinsic value. The value of a thing is created by the evaluations of individuals and expressed by the actions they take triggered by their evaluations.

Whatever one might think of Neo-Aristotelianism à la Rasmussen and Den Uyl, the authors have to be credited highly for having preferred the logical aspect of liberalism to the historical one. It is the historical point of view that evokes from time to time uneasiness and raises the unedifying question of the superiority of cultures, a topic that outside the boundaries of value-free scientific discussions cannot but be far from being salutary. As measured by the pressing request for a global peaceful order the logical question should precede the historical one anyway. In other words, facing the problems associated with actual and potential "clashes of civilisations" (in a descriptive sense) Norms of Liberty is a book of utmost importance and actuality.

– Hardy Bouillon

Return to Library

Next Feature: Schiller's William Tell

Previous Feature: Folsom's Empire Builders. How Michigan Entrepreneurs helped make America great