Underpinning principles of liberalism
Question 1: (50 marks)
- Like all philosophical schools and ideologies, liberalism grew out of a particular historical context. What are the underpinning principles of liberalism, and how does it view the world at large?
Liberalism can be elaborated as a thoughtful attitude that focuses more on individuality, freedom, and the act of treating individuals equally. It emphasizes the importance of valuing every individual’s personal liberty and the idea that all human beings should be treated equally since they all have the same morals. However, due to changes due to diversity as well as migration, people from different races, religions, gender, and distinct culture interact in society, making the impact of liberalism to keep changing and develop over time. Therefore, this essay is intended to point out the different issues relating to liberalism and the relevant arguments concerning it.
Liberalism has different versions. Among them is different blind liberalism, which contains ideas that urge public organizations and the government to practice equality when dealing with diverse groups of people regardless of their race, religion, gender, culture, ethnicity, or any other social difference. This variation of liberalism terms these differences as a private matter, which should not be a concern in the public institutions. The difference between different blind liberalism and the act of discrimination is that discrimination treats different groups of people differently depending on their level of needs to protect their identity culturally or their religion. Therefore, in this case, liberalism is more into discrimination since individuals have the right to live freely while different blind liberalism takes the differences as a private matter.
Two principles try to elaborate more on discrimination. Principle number one states that it is unjust when people are discriminated against race and are considered to be irrelevant to the situation at hand. For example, when an organization puts an advertisement and expects the interested people to send an application by a specific date, someone posts it past the time. It is a fact that failing to write a letter before the deadline date does not impact performance; hence, it is irrelevant, but the fact that someone chose not to write by the said date can be used as a reason for discrimination. Principle number two states that it is unjust when people are discriminated against due to consideration of the basis of things considered, not a matter of choice. For example, discriminating against someone during the selection of a basketball team because they are short. It is unfair because it is not the choice to be short, and their height, in this case, is considered not a matter of choice. Therefore, it seems unjust when people are discriminated against without discussing the matter of choice or how relevant the situation is.
Various arguments aim to convince the different blind liberalism about the issue of exemption in the treatment of different people. The first argument is the culture exemption, which argues that people in a group of cultural minorities should be treated differently by being given exemptions that help protect the identity of the culture ot their religious practices. Another argument is an unequal impact, which challenges the difference blind liberals by stating that even though policies and laws should be applied to every person on equal measures, and individuals should be treated equally. The last argument is the autonomy argument, which argues that everyone should be free to do what they deem right to them as long as it does not harm another person.
Raz and Margalit, being philosophers of liberalism, argue that cultural groups should be given the opportunity to follow their own principles, which they call self-determination hence neglect the difference-blind liberalism. They argue that in order for one to be self-determined, there should be cultural exemptions, especially for the minority in society.
To conclude, discriminative liberalism is more useful since people are treated depending on their level of needs. Through that, their cultural identity and religion are protected; hence the impact is felt.
Question 2: (50 marks)
- In the 19th century, Victorian Britain was the world’s largest empire, and Victorian attitudes to race, traced to scientific discoveries/knowledge of the time, shaped how Benin and other art by the colonies were perceived and treated. Elaborate.
The issue of civilization and discrimination of the black race has been a problem for decades, whereby the whites are considered more superior compared to the blacks. This essay aims at pointing out how the issue of race can be traced back to scientific research and how Benin viewed the issue of colonization.
Eurocentric, Racism, as well as imperialism, are some of the attitudes that the Victorians possessed there were cases of emphasis on the appearance differences where mostly the native people had beliefs and indulged in practices such as cannibalism and witchcraft. A book is known as ” The races of men,” published in the year 1850 by Robert Knox. In his book, he pointed out how humankind was made up of various races who descended from different lines. Each species had different abilities and qualities that are unequal. Knox stated that he had observed this argument and, at some point, experienced and noted that the dark races tend to be affected by the psychological and physical inferiority.
Considering the case in Europe, where imperial supremacy came from the notion that race was a tool used to justify hierarchies and imperial power legitimization. British was seen as superior due to its ability to form its administrative capacity, industrial and imperial to makes changes meant to adapt to the changing environment. On the other hand, Benin was used as an example of a society that could not improve without help due to its backwardness. Therefore, there was a plan made by the British to start a civilizing mission in order to help the countries they believed had been lagging. However, Benin had managed to make quality craftsmanship and aesthetics. This came as a surprise since people thought with all the stories concerning human sacrifice and brutality in Benin they could not make such sophisticated artwork. According to Ling Roth, the artifacts could be essential in the study concerning anthropology and discovering new traits among the native races. With this knowledge, it could be easier to carry out trade in between the imperial governments.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, which had its eleventh edition published between 1910 up to 1911 in the entry of Negro, was greatly helpful in imparting knowledge about critical issues on the people. It had theories about evolution where the step by step development “the Negro” In terms of both physically and mentally are featured .it also featured the idea concerning the natural selection of species whereby the scientific understanding of race is brought up where the inferiority complex of black people against the superiority of the whites is justified.
The British newspapers, Encyclopedia, and the museum’s serve as essential institutions and agencies to pass information about the past and scientific facts through their writings, publications, or displays. Benin was seen as an exception in the sixteenth century due to its expertise in artifacts too late in the nineteenth century. As for the Africans, they were seen as being backward and incapable of making any significant progress without the help of either the white, the Western, and the Christian culture.
To sum up, British education and western civilization have, to a great extent, be able to transform most African nations, hence preventing them from lagging.
End of Assessment