As ethnic, racial, religious, and gender-based groups demand rights
to pursue radically diverse lifestyles or maintain their cultural
traditions, conflict seems inevitable, even in a free society.
Government may offer remedies to social dilemmas -- such as
affirmative action, curbs on immigration, or protection of gay
rights -- but these may only fan the flames of resentment. Yet any
society that tolerates and protects diversity is more likely to
preserve the freedom to live one's life without interference.
Emily Gill reexamines the liberal tradition to reconcile its
core commitments to autonomy and diversity -- values that in theory
are complementary but in practice are often at odds -- and to show
that the interaction of these values determines how we as
individuals become free. In Becoming Free, she argues that true
freedom is enhanced through the promotion of diversity and the
encouragement of rational reflection on the options it allows --
and that limited choice or ignorance diminishes such freedom. Yet
an incomplete freedom is what many individuals, groups, and states
advocate when they commit to particular cultural traditions or
religious beliefs, despite the autonomy they themselves enjoy.
Gill traces the implications of these conflicting views by
drawing on recent scholarship and legal decisions in six areas:
national citizenship, cultural membership, ethnicity and gender,
religious belief, sexuality, and civic education. By exploring the
tensions between autonomy and diversity in such instances as Boy
Scouts membership restrictions, gay rights legislation, and
education among the Amish, she not only offers an insightful
commentary on current issues but also explores themoral foundations
of liberal thought.
Unlike those who criticize liberalism for its shallow
philosophical grounding, Gill shows it to have a substantive moral
content grounded in the individual's capacity to make rational
decisions based on critical reflection. In her tightly woven
arguments, she explores real-world problems in a meaningful way for
students and for anyone concerned with the future of liberalism,
showing that becoming free is an ongoing process of human and
social development.
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