Taylor

1. Opposition to homosexual marriage in the United States derives from a fear that such marriages will ultimately undermine patriarchal power. Our society is not liberal at all, but instead derives its legitimacy from a social contract that is originally based on sexual domination. Please write an essay evaluating this statement paying close attention to contract theorists and their critics.

2. " 'Republicanism' has been revived as a modern ideology. Disillusion with classical liberalism, because it has led to unrestrained capitalism, and with Marxism, because it has resulted in political tyranny, has created a vogue for a 'republican' philosophy, with a commitment to effective legal restraints on the executive, an active ideal of participatory citizenship, and a belief that the collective good should take priority over private interest. Thus defined, 'republicanism' appears to be an attractive, nonsocialist alternative to capitalism and globalization."

Keith Thomas. "Politics: Looking for Liberty." The New York Review of Books. May 26, 2005.

"Democracy...demands too much, pre-empts too much of human life to be a proper ideal. But is political liberalism itself a form of comprehensive doctrine? Rawls, of course, denies it; and while that denial may be justifiable, the question helps to expose the repressive elements in Rawls' liberalism."

Sheldon Wolin. 2004. Politics and Vision. Princeton: Princeton University Press. P. 549.

Of all the critiques of liberalism that we have encountered this semester, the most compelling seem to be those from a tradition generally referred to as "republicanism