Perfection, the State, and Victorian Liberalism

Malachuk, D.

This book recovers and recommends the core conviction of Victorian liberal theory that human beings, with the help of the state, can achieve an objective moral perfection. The first half of the book considers the diverse modern biases that have blinded us to the merit of this core conviction and weaves together disparate new scholarship (primarily in political theory and Victorian Studies) to set the stage for a reconsideration of that conviction. The second half of the book is that reconsideration outlining the various policies the Victorian liberals (John Stuart Mill and Matthew Arnold, primarily, with a half dozen other nineteenth-century British and American authors) recommended the state employ in the perfection of human beings.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2005-09-06

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9781403968357

DOI: 10.1057/9781403982247

Dimensions: 216cm x140cm

Pages: 210