Human Nature:
- Strongly in favour for Enlightenment.
- One of the most key features had been the challenge that it was established with the notion of human nature.
- It has been very strongly tied with religious doctrine of original sin.
- Mankind was deeply flawed and imperfect and that man’s only hope lay in him acknowledging his flaws and imperfections whilst praying for grace and forgiveness of God.
- Liberals have always denied this bleak view offering a more optimistic view of human nature.
- Liberalism argues that human nature has a huge capacity to bring about progress and an unending ability to forge greater human happiness. Individuals are guided by reasons or rationalism and are about to calculate the answers to all sorts of problems.
- Mankind’s innate reason in manifested in debate, discussion, peaceful argument and the measured examination of ideas and opinions rather than accepting whatever life offers
- Perhaps by arguing that “it’s what God would have wanted.”
- Individuals have the power to plan their own life. It is this what has shaped the “cheerly” nature of Liberalism where everyone is free idea.
- Problems for human nature in liberalism are “problems” awaiting reasonable solutions. They believe that you really want something, it can be achieved through reason and determination.
- Individuals are self-seeking and self-serving hence the association with egoistical individualism
- Egotistical Individualism: Linked to the early (classical) liberalism, this denotes a belief that human beings are naturally drawn to the advancement of their own selfish interests and the pursuit of their own happiness. Its proponents citing mankind’s concurrent rationalism deny, this leads to conflict or gross insensitivity.
- Liberals ideally just want to live in peace, harmony, and mutual understanding.
Society:
- A liberal’s optimistic view on human nature means that no society can exist.
- Thomas Hobbes argued that human nature is so brutally selfish that no society could possibly arise from it or even survive until human nature is restrained by a strong, formal authority – in short, a state.
- Locke offered a different view whereby society does exist but it is more “natural” with more “natural laws” and “natural rights” (includes: the right to life, liberty, property and happiness).
- The idea that liberals enjoy a society where rights are enjoyed explains why liberals place so much importance upon the individual.
- John Stuart Mill argued that argued that the main purpose of any civilised society is to have individualism. And to be driven by ourselves.
- For liberals, life was not harsh – it was pleasant, civilised and long.
- For liberals, the “default setting” of a society is focus upon individual freedom and any society which doesn’t allow this is dysfunctional.
- They will argue that the right to property (for example) is important as is the expression of the individual in society. It also allows people to develop their potentials and for men and women to nurture their taste and judgement.