Liberalism as a Way of Life & Human Rights and the Care of the Self

Alexandre Lefebvre is a Professor of International Relations and Philosophy at the University of Sydney. We discuss the subject of his book “Human Rights and the Care of the Self”, and his book currently in writing called “Liberalism as a Way of Life”.

“Liberalism can serve as a worldview and way of living: not just in terms of how people relate to one another, but as a way of everyday life that reaches the level of sentiments, desires, and self-understanding. If citizens of liberal democracies were to recognize the potential costs of a shift away from liberalism, then perhaps they would be less inclined to resignation, or indifference to its fate”.

Alexandre discusses the main claims developed by human rights philosophers including Wollstonecraft, Tocqueville, Bergson, Rawls, and Roosevelt, and how overcoming personal attachment to all social and political forces (including patriarchism, individualism, xenophobia, conformity and materialism) is the single most important key to living well.

He explains how human rights is also about working on the self through personal transformation, which is fundamental to achieving any measure of contentment, tranquility, and self-realization. In this way it can bring about social and political transformations and create more pluralistic and liberal societies.

We also hear about the work of the great philosopher Henri Bergson and why France assigned him to strike up a personal relationship with President Woodrow Wilson to convince America to enter WWI.