Liberty and Equality
An invaluable reflection on the essence of liberal democracy — and an ideal introduction to the work of political philosopher Raymond Aron.
Liberty and Equality is the first English translation of the last lecture delivered at the Collège de France by Raymond Aron, one of the most influential political and social thinkers of the twentieth century. In this important work, the most prominent French liberal intellectual of the Cold War era presents his views on the core values of liberal democracy: liberty and equality. At the same time, he provides an ideal introduction to key aspects of his thought.
Ranging from Soviet ideology to Watergate, Aron reflects on root concepts of democracy and representative government, articulates a notion of liberty or freedom as equal right as distinct from equal outcome, and discusses different kinds of liberties: personal, political, religious and social. In search of a common truth or at least a common good, and analysing what he perceives as the crisis of liberal democracies, Aron opens a space for reexamining the relation between liberty and equality.
Raymond Aron (1905–1983) was one of the most important political philosophers and sociologists of the twentieth century. His many books include The Opium of the Intellectuals.
Samuel Garrett Zeitlin is Lecturer in Modern Intellectual History at University College London. He is the coeditor and translator of Carl Schmitt’s Early Legal-Theoretical Writings and Land and Sea: A World-Historical Meditation and the translator of Schmitt’s Dialogues on Power and Space and The Tyranny of Valuesand Other Texts.
