Rights angles

Loren Lomasky is a leading advocate of a rights-based libertarian approach to political and social issues. This volume collects fifteen of his articles that have appeared since his influential volume Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community (OUP, 1987) alongside one new essay. The volume represents Lomasky's more recent efforts at constructing the underpinnings of liberal rights theory, in which he formulates a series of questions about the nature and scope of rights and rights holders. Among the questions Lomasky addresses: In what way is classical utilitarianism fundamentally illiberal? To what extent might utilitarian cost-benefit analyses be admissible within rights-upholding political theory? Does it even make sense to speak of maximizing liberty? How can this be understood in Hobbesian, Kantian, and Rawlsian theoretical settings? In a world in which rights-talk is ubiquitous, what is the role of traditional virtues such as loyalty and charity? Is it inconsistent to espouse both an austere classical liberalism and a social safety net? Liberalism is most often presented as a theory about the internal contours of the state, but how does it speak to the relationships between one state and another? Between the state and would-be immigrants? In a world displaying massive cross-border inequalities, does justice require the extension of aid from the rich to the poor? The book opens with an unpublished essay, "Everything Old is New Again: The Death and Rebirth of Classical Liberalism," which features a history of the century-long decline of traditional liberalism and its remarkable, unanticipated return to vitality in the second half of the 20th century. It then offers the prospectus for a libertarian research program for the next half century. --

Includes index.

Everything old is new again: the death and rebirth of classical liberal philosophy -- A refutation of utilitarianism -- Personal projects as the foundation for basic rights -- The matrix of contractarian justice (with James M. Buchanan) -- Rights without stilts -- Compensation and the bounds of rights -- Justice to charity -- Liberty and welfare goods: reflections on clashing liberalisms -- Toward a liberal theory of national boundaries -- Nozick's libertarian utopia -- Classical liberalism and civil society -- Libertarianism at twin Harvard -- Against reviving Republicanism (with Geoffrey Brennan) -- Liberalism beyond borders -- The paradox of association -- Contract, covenant, constitution.