Beyond Classical Liberalism

James Dominic Rooney, OP, is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University. He works primarily in metaphysics, medieval philosophy, philosophy of religion, and Chinese philosophy, with research interests in natural law theory, social ontology, the ethical and political implications of pluralism, and how norms of practical reason affect public reason theories of justification. He has published in Faith and Philosophy, dialectica, American Journal of Jurisprudence, Journal of Church and State, International Philosophical Quarterly, and other venues. His most recent book is Material Objects in Confucian and Aristotelian Metaphysics: The Inevitability of Hylomorphism (2022). Patrick Zoll, SJ, is Professor of Metaphysics at the Munich School of Philosophy in Germany. He published a monograph on the debate between anti-perfectionist and perfectionist liberals which won the renowned Karl Alber Prize 2016 and was nominated for the Deutscher Studienpreis 2016: Perfektionistischer Liberalismus (2016). His other publications appeared in several journals: Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, Heythrop Journal, Faith and Philosophy, and Zeitschrift für Theologie und Philosophie. His most recent book is What It Is to Exist: The Contribution of Thomas Aquinas’s View to the Contemporary Debate (2022).

Introduction Part I: Freedom and the Good of Liberal Institutions 1. Republican Freedom, Social Justice, and Democracy 2. Political Perfectionism and Spheres of State Neutrality 3. The Common Good of Nations and International Order Part II: Public Reasonability and Justification5. Discursive Equality and Public Reason 6. Perfectionist Public Reason Liberalism: Why Public Reason Liberalism Should Be Reconcilable with Political Perfectionism 7. Liberal Arts and the Failures of Liberalism 8. Perfectionism, Political Justification, and Confucianism Part III: The Ethics of Pluralism 9. Religion, Democratic Deliberation, and the Requirement of Fallibilism 10. Perfectionism and Respect of Persons 11. Tolerance as Turnabout: Fair Play, Freedom, and Republican Character 12. Human Rights in the Natural Law Tradition Part IV: Perfectionist Traditions 13. Well-Being Policy: Consensus Hallmarks and Cultural Variation 14. Aristotle, Athens, and Modern Democracy: Prospects for a Usable Past 15. Liberty and the Good in the American Founding 16. Confucian Perfectionism and Resources for Liberties