Original scientific paper

Liberal Nationalism: The Argument of Self-Respect

Elvio Baccarini orcid.org/0000-0002-6771-9859 ; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Philosophy, Rijeka, Croatia

Abstract

The issue regarded in this article is whether we have to include national belonging in the list of primary goods, i.e., whether there is a strong connection between national belonging and primary goods about which the classical liberal theory (as the one proposed in the most important work in liberal political philosophy in 20th century, i.e. John Rawls’s Theory of Justice) speaks, such that the protection of national belonging must be included in the list of primary goods. Leading authors in the liberal nationalist paradigm, more or less directly, discuss about this issue. In this paper, the supposed connection between the protection of national belonging and the social bases of selfrespect is specifically discussed. Despite the reasons for some public protection of national belonging, its foundation at the level of primary goods, at least as far as it concerns the argument that relies on the social bases of selfrespect, is not plausible.

Keywords

liberal nationalism; social bases of self-respect; Will Kymlicka; John Rawls; Joseph Raz

Hrčak ID:

62980

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/62980

Publication date:

21.7.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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