Liberalism as good ways of life

In this symposium contribution on Alexandre Lefebvre's Liberalism as a Way of Life (Princeton 2024), I explore the insight that many individuals in liberal democracies derive their personal values-such as equality, fairness, and autonomy-not from religious or philosophical doctrines, but from the liberal political order itself. Drawing on liberalism's nonteleological and pluralistic orientation, I argue that liberalism, as compared with comprehensive doctrines, is less deep insofar as it does not offer an ordered vision of final ends, leaving to each individual to select those ends. There are, I claim, many good liberal ways of life. I next explore liberalism's "social thesis", emphasizing the need for a supportive social and cultural environment to cultivate autonomy before reflecting on the challenge of liberalism's self-preservation in a pluralistic society. The essay concludes by raising questions whether public institutions should promote liberal values as enabling conditions for self-direction rather than as final ends.