This volume brings together a wide-ranging collection of the papers written by Jeremy Waldron, one of the most internationally respected political theorists writing today. The main focus of the collection is on substantive issues in modern political philosophy. The first six chapters deal with freedom, toleration and neutrality and argue for a robust conception of liberty. Waldron defends the idea that people have a right to act in ways others disapprove of, and that the state should be neutral vis-á-vis religious and ethical systems. The chapters that follow are concerned with socio-economic rights. Waldron argues that poverty and homelessness are not to be understood apart from the value of freedom. On the contrary our moral response to them should be based on the same values that underlie traditional liberal philosophy.
1. Introduction: 'Liberal rights: two sides of the coin'; 2. Theoretical foundations of liberalism; 3. A right to do wrong; 4. Locke, toleration and the rationality of persecution; 5. Mill and the value of moral distress; 6. Religion and the imagination in a global community: a discussion of the Salmon Rushdie affair; 7. Legislation and moral neutrality; 8. Particular values and critical morality; 9. Rights in conflict; 10. Welfare and the images of charity; 11. John Rawls and the social minimum; 12. Citizenship, social citizenship and the defence of welfare rights; 13. Homelessness and the issue of liberty; 14. Can communal goods be human rights?; 15. When justice replaces affection: the need for rights; 16. Rights and majorities: Rousseau revisited.
