The Human Truth Foundation

Liberal Values

http://www.humantruth.info/the_values_of_liberalism.html

By Vexen Crabtree 2019

#equality #human_rights #liberalism #politics #The_Enlightenment

Liberal values can be divided into social, political and economic. Historically, as a set of recognizable ideologies, liberalism derives from The Enlightenment1,2, but it wasn't, and still isn't, an homogenous character trait: Someone who holds liberal ideas in one domain doesn't have to be liberal in another. An individual may be socially liberal but not an economic liberal; others may be liberal overall, but not when it comes to political structures. Human rights and decency is the output of liberal social work. Democracy is an output of the liberal political project and is the only contender to authoritarianism3, and, free-market-capitalism is the result of liberal thinking on markets4.

Many of these relating to freedom, democratic powers, compassion and rationalism can be said to have first been pushed into the political sphere during The Enlightenment.


1. Liberal Social Values

#equality #free_speech #freedom #human_rights #justice #liberalism #morality #UK

Alphabetically:

2. Liberal Political Values

#democracy #liberalism #politics

Liberalism does not automatically require a democratic structure around it22, however, no other system of governance has engendered and supported consistent liberalism14. The very meaning of "democracy" has now come to imply a range of liberal values14.

3. Liberal Economic Values

#capitalism #economics #human_rights #liberalism