In my favorite Hyde Park Library, a book was recently uploaded that few people are likely to read, if only because of the disgusting format (a scan of a paper book) and its massive size (nearly five hundred pages). I am talking about “Liberal Archipelago” by Chandran Kukathas. However, you will surely have enough patience to read the book’s preface written by Vadim Novikov.

I won’t lie, I also only managed to get through the preface and skimmed the rest of the book, mainly to make sure that it was at least written in a digestible style. Yes, the style is fine; it’s readable.

What is interesting about the ideas presented by Kukathas? He analyzes liberal notions of justice (Rawls’ veil of ignorance principle and the like) and concludes that while this is all theoretically very attractive, in practice, it will still be impossible to impose uniform concepts on people. And it shouldn’t be done. According to Kukathas, the most critical basic freedom is the freedom to exit a community. The most critical liberal virtue is tolerance. If you truly and sincerely believe that your ethical principles are the best, prove it through peaceful competition rather than imposing them by force.

This refers back to my recent post about the US Civil War. Yes, slavery offends the sense of justice. But the attempt to rid the Southern states of slavery through laws passed in Congress led to secession, secession led to war, and as a result, no one escaped unscathed.

Kukathas concludes that a society consistent with liberal principles would be one where the question of power is resolved by a social contract, but where this contract is entered into by each specific person within each specific community they belong to and from which they can freely exit. This is the same idea of contractual jurisdictions frequently discussed by libertarians. So, if you need more arguments in their favor—you know what else is worth reading.