Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl : Critical Essays on Norms of Liberty

Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl is a collection of interpretive and critical essays by philosophers and political scientists which explores central themes in liberalism and its ethical and metaphysical grounding. The volume contains a reply essay by Rasmussen and Den Uyl.

Douglas B. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl''s recent book Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics (Penn State University Press, 2005) is being received in philosophy and political theory as an important and original defense of liberalism. The book offers a neo-Aristotelian ethic of human flourishing as a basis for a liberal conception of human rights. One of the authors'' central contentions is that a key problem for any (liberal) political philosophy is how to establish a political/legal order which in principle does not require that any one person or group''s well-being be given structured preference over that of any other. This companion volume, an interpretive and critical reader, features essays from both philosophers and political scientists, as well as an omnibus reply by Rasmussen and Den Uyl. Norms of Liberty makes challenging arguments about key issues, which makes a multi-disciplinary reader a valuable asset for both students and scholars. Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl is designed both to explicate the book''s arguments and to explore possible objections.