Liberalism is scepticism of power | Chandran Kukathas

Rob and Chandran discuss Chandran's journey from a young socialist to a thoughtful liberal. Chandran understands the essence of liberalism as a commitment to individual freedom but also a commitment to equal freedom. Chandran and Rob discuss how differently liberalism expresses itself in different cultures and how liberal institutions and ideas are all over the world, even in countries like Singapore, which explicitly disavows liberalism.
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[kevincurrie-knight]

I love Chandran's work! What I find is that there are two sorts of liberalism (that correspond to John Gray's Two Faces of Liberalism and Michael Oakeshott's Politics of Faith and Politics of Skepticism.

There is the thick liberalism, based on the idea that we know what social order is best - a liberal, market, properetarian one - and that is what justifies liberalism. Then there is the thin liberalism based on the idea that since we do not know what social order is best, liberalaism is justified because it leaves people free to create anad choose their desired social order.

Chandran (and I) are in that latter category. Too many liberals than I'd like are in the former category.