Ideology
Liberalism
Liberals generally emphasize individual liberty, equal rights, rule of law, and limits on government power.
01
Identity Card
- Name and etymology
- Latin liber ("free"); political use crystallized in 19th c.
- Type
- Political and economic ideology.
- Founder or origin
- Roots in Locke, Montesquieu, Smith, Mill, Kant.
- Date and place
- Enlightenment Europe (17th–18th c.); global influence today.
- Adherents
- Underpins most modern democracies; hundreds of millions identify with liberal values.
02
Source of Authority
- Primary scripture
- No scripture; key works: Locke's Two Treatises, Mill's On Liberty, Rawls' Theory of Justice.
- Source of truth
- Reason, individual conscience, empirical inquiry.
- Authority structure
- Constitutional governments, rule of law, free institutions.
03
Core Beliefs
- Core idea
- Liberals generally believe individuals have rights and that government should protect those rights with consent and law.
- View of God or ultimate reality
- Neutral — typically secular but compatible with religious belief.
- View of humanity
- Liberalism generally sees people as rights-bearing individuals who deserve freedom, dignity, and legal equality.
- View of the world
- Improvable through reasoned debate, markets, and institutions.
04
Practical Implications
- Purpose of life
- Personal choice — pursuit of one's own conception of the good.
- Ethics
- Rights-based, individual freedom balanced with harm principle.
- Afterlife
- Not a doctrinal claim.
- Key practices
- Voting, free speech, civil society, market participation.
05
Comparative Lenses
- Main branches
- Classical, social, neoliberal, progressive, libertarian.
- Relationship to others
- Often in tension with nationalism, traditionalism, socialism.
- Common critiques
- Charged with individualism, cultural imperialism, market excess.
- Modern adaptations
- Liberal democracy, human rights frameworks, global governance.
Simple educational summaries. For religions, claims are attributed to scripture or major source texts where possible; where no scripture exists, wording describes what followers/supporters generally hold. References are starting points, not exhaustive academic citations.