Beyond Liberalism: The Political Thought of F. A. Hayek & Michael Polanyi

Allen takes up Michael Polanyi's argument that "negative" liberty -- doing as one pleases so long as one does not impinge upon the equal liberty of others -- must and has led to destructive nihilism and a fierce reaction to collectivism. He shows how Polanyi's political philosophy evolved into a more "positive" concept of liberty, converging upon the archetypal conservatism of Edmund Burke. Allen examines Polanyi's and F.A. Hayek's thinking with respect to the nature, value, and foundations of liberty. For Allen, only Christianity, and certainly no modern philosophy, has a conception of the unique individual and his irreplaceable value and of a political order that transcends itself into the moral order. Beyond Liberalism challenges deeply ingrained notions of liberty and its meaning in modern society.