Reason

Extract taken from Political Ideologies: An Introduction by Andrew Heywood

The liberal case for freedom is closely linked to a faith in reason. Liberalism is, and remains, very much part of the Enlightenment project. The central theme of the Enlightenment was the desire to release humankind from its bondage to superstition and ignorance, and unleash an ‘age of reason’. Key Enlightened thinkers included Jean-Jacques Rousseau (see p. 165), Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith (see p. 52) and Jeremy Bentham (see p. 51). Enlightenment rationalism influenced liberalism in a number of ways. In the first place, it strengthened its faith in both the individual and in liberty. To the extent that human beings are rational, thinking creatures, they are capable of defining and pursuing their own best interests. By no means do liberals believe that individuals are infallible in this respect, but the belief in reason builds into liberalism a strong bias against paternalism (see p. 87). Not only does paternalism prevent individuals from making their own moral choices and, if necessary, from learning from their own mistakes, but it also creates the prospect that those invested with responsibility for others will abuse their position for their own ends.

A further legacy of rationalism is that liberals are strongly inclined to believe in progress. Progress literally means advance, a movement forward. In the liberal view, the expansion of knowledge, particularly through the scientific revolution, enabled people not only to understand and explain their world but also to help shape it for the better. In short, the power of reason gives human beings the capacity to take charge of their own lives and fashion their own destinies. Rationalism thus emancipates humankind from the grip of the past and from the weight of custom and tradition. Each generation is able to advance beyond the last as the stock of human knowledge and understanding progressively increases. This also explains the characteristic liberal emphasis upon education. People can better or improve themselves through the acquisition of knowledge and the abandonment of prejudice and superstition. Education, particularly in the modern liberal view, is thus a good in itself. It is a vital means of promoting personal self-development and, if extended widely, of achieving historical and social advancement.

Reason, moreover, is significant in highlighting the importance of discussion, debate and argument. While liberals are generally optimistic about human nature, seeing people as reason guided creatures, they have seldom subscribed to the utopian creed of human perfectibility because they recognize the power of self-interest and egoism. The inevitable result of this is rivalry and conflict. Individuals battle for scarce resources, businesses compete to increase profits, nations struggle for security or strategic advantage, and so forth. The liberal preference is clearly that such conflicts be settled through debate and negotiation. The great advantage of

reason is that it provides a basis upon which rival claims and demands can be evaluated – do they ‘stand up’ to analysis, are they ‘reasonable’? Furthermore, it highlights the cost of not resolving disputes peacefully, namely violence, bloodshed and death. Liberals therefore deplore the use of force and aggression; for example, war is invariably seen as an option of the very last resort. Not only does violence mark the failure of reason, but all too often it also unleashes irrational blood lusts and the desire for power for its own sake. Liberals may believe that the use of force is justified either on the grounds of self-defense or as a means of countering oppression, but always and only after reason and argument have failed.