fuuuuuck hes being so cool rn.
"there is no value-neutral definition of liberty"
"if there is one common thread to the argument of this book it is its critique of individualism and its endeavor to argue for a liberal morality on non-individualistic grounds"
"the argument of this book strives to rehabilitate the traditionalist affirmation of the value of freedom. but it accepts the revisionist arguments against both the presumption of liberty and the simple principle, as well as their critique of linguistic analysis.
in some ways my proposed defense of the traditional belief in the value of freedom is based on a radical departure from some historically central liberal doctrines."
i just have such a soft spot in my heart for people who throw away all of the intellectual scaffolding that would regularly arrive at their conclusions
good analysis that authority is not merely defacto authority, there is some normative justificatory core to the concept, whether or not that project succeeds is a separate question
"the case for the validity of a claim to authority must include justificatory considerations sufficient to outweigh counter-reasons. that is one reason why the case is hard to make.
but if anarchists are right to think that it can never be made, this is for contingent reasons and not because of any inconsistency in the notion of a rational justification for authority, nor in the notion of authority over moral agents"