Self-interested individuals and social order in liberal thought

• Thesis title in Czech: Zájmy jednotlivců a společenský řád v liberálním myšlení
• Thesis title in English: Self-interested individuals and social order in liberal thought
• English key words: liberalism, modernity, self-interest, natural laws, social contract theory, utilitarianism, particularity, generality
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2021/2022
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of North American Studies (23-KAS)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Jan Hornát, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 12.12.2021
• Date of assignment: 12.12.2021
• Date and time of defence: 20.09.2022 10:15
• Venue of defence: Pekařská 16, JPEK312, 312, Malá učebna, 3.patro
• Date of electronic submission: 27.07.2022
• Date of proceeded defence: 20.09.2022
• Opponents: Mgr. Jakub Franěk, Ph.D.

References

・Asher, Kendra. 2020. “Moderation and the liberal state: David Hume’s history of England.“ Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Accessed July 22, 2022. https://econfaculty.gmu.edu/klein/PdfPapers/SHLE_paper/Asher-Moderation%20and%20the%20Liberal%20State%20v15.pdf.
・Bentham, Jeremy. 1781. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Accessed July 25, 2022. Jeremy Bentham: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (utilitarianism.com).
・Brownsey, P.F. 1978, “Hume and the Social Contract.“ The Philosophical Quarterly. Oxford, Oxford journals. Oxford University Press. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://www.jstor.org/table/2219359.
・Ceaser, James W. 1992. Liberal democracy and political science. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
・Deneen, Patrick J. 2018. Why Liberalism Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press. Accessed July 10, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.
・Duncan, Stewart. 2022. “Thomas Hobbes“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2022 Edition). Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Accessed July 23, 2022. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/hobbes/.
・Hume, David. 1748. OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT. Accessed July 22, 2022. https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil215/Hume.pdf.
・Locke, John. 2016. Two Treatises of Government. MA: Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated. Accessed July 10, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.
・Ludwig von Mises, and Bettina Bien Greaves. 2005. Liberalism : The Classical Liberalism. Lib Works Ludwig Von Mises PB Ser. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Inc. Accessed July 22, 2022. https://cdn.mises.org/Liberalism%20In%20the%20Classical%20Tradition_3.pdf.
・McCann, Charles. 2004. Individualism and the Social Order: The Social Element in Liberal Thought. Boca Raton, FL: Routledge.
・Mill, John Stuart. 2011. On Liberty. S.I: Andrews UK. Accessed July 10, 2022. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCO).
・Parekh, Bhikhu. 1992. “The Cultural Paritcularity of Liberal Democracy.“ Political Studies 40 (August): 160-75. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1992.tb01829.x.
・Parkin, Jon. 2007. “The reception of Hobbes’s Leviathan“ in The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’s Leviathan. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. pp.441-459.
・Rawls, John. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
・Rosenblatt, Helena. 2018. The Lost History of Liberalism : From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Accessed July 10, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.
・Rotunda, Ronald D. 1986. The politics of language: Liberalism as word and symbol. Iowa City, LA. University of Iowa Press. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/215735517.pdf .
・Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2019. On the Social Contract. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated. Accessed July 10, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.
・Sandel, Michael J. 1996. Democracy's discontent: America in search of a public philosophy. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
・Sandel, Michael J. 2020. The tyranny of merit: what's become of the common good ?. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
・Smith, George H. 2017. Self-interest and social order in classical liberalism: the essays of George H. Smith. Washington, District of Columbia: Cato Institute.

Preliminary scope of work in English

Liberalism is one of the most prevailing political thoughts in modern society. It is often mentioned in connection with other social systems such as democracy and market economy. But what exactly are the main characteristics of liberalism? How has liberal thought developed in modern society? The main concern in this thesis is to describe the characters of modern liberal thought from the perspective of social contract theory and of some liberal thinkers who emphasize the self-interested (or rational) individuals. Social contract theory is the hypothetical equipment for thinking about individuality (basic feature of modernity) and social order. The purpose of the first part of the thesis is to describe how self-interested individuals agree with the establishment of a sovereign. At another part, by mentioning some liberal thinkers, I will discuss the possible spectrum of the rules of government in liberal thought. The spectrum could be explained as the result of different assumption of self-interested individuals and of legitimacy in society. In the whole thesis, I will focus on two elements in society: particularity and generality. Particularity means particular interests (self-interested behavior) of individuals and generality means general interests (publicness). In comparison of particularity and generality, I will describe the basic idea of liberal thought and seek the possibility of liberalism.