Original scientific paper

Liberalism and Practical Philosophy

Ante Pažanin ; Faculty of political science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The author presents the central postulates from the latest works by John
Rawls and Michael Walzer as the most prominent representatives of liberalism
and communitarianism in the contemporary American political philosophy and
points to their predecessors and parallels in political philosophy, from Kant and
Hegel to Mill and Dewey. Siuce liberals and communitarians of today do not
any longer advocate a „society" or a "community" in the traditional sense, but
the „posttraditional“ liberal democratic community in which liberal principles of
justice and human rights can be realized, their thinking is intcrcsting also to
those peoples who have set out to build liberal-democratic societies outside the
states of developed West. Naturally, the realization of freedom and human
rights depends on the cultural tradition of each people and the historical
"lebenswelt“ in general, but also on the virtues of liberal citizens who in a
communal political life „realize " postulates of communality comprised in liberalism“
(Walzer) and thus foster a free and good human life.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

110808

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/110808

Publication date:

1.2.1995.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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