From Scepticism to Liberalism? Bernard Williams, the Foundations of Liberalism and Political Realism

Bibliographic Data

ID6344833
AuthorsPaul Sagar (0000-0002-8076-7927, King’s College Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume64
Issue2
Pages368-384
Publication date2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-9248.12173
OpenAlexW1536426795
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited57

Bernard Williams was an ethical sceptic, but he was also a proponent of liberalism. To what extent can one finally be both? This article explores this question through a particular emphasis on Williams, but seeks to draw wider lessons regarding what ethical scepticism should and should not amount to. It shows how ethical scepticism can be reconciled with a commitment to what Williams, following Judith Shklar, called ‘the liberalism of fear’, which is revealed as an ecumenical outlook for different stripes of ethical sceptic. The article concludes by drawing some lessons for the recent ‘realist’ turn in political theory

Classical liberalism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Realism · Skepticism · Sociology · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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