Entre el humanismo cívico y el liberalismo de izquierda

Abstract

I shall begin by exposing the «humanist» criticism of leftwing liberalism and analizing W. Kymlicka's left liberal response to it, while highlighting its coincidences with classical republicanism. I shall then argue that, even if we accept Kymlicka's response, leftwing liberalism is still problematic due to its difficulty in generating political participation. Liberal separation of ethics and politics renders political participation in unjust societies pointless. In order to surmount this problem, we need to resort to the intrinsic value of participation, as humanists do, while avoiding a defense of participation for its own sake, that would carry counter intuitive consequences, as shown by Kymlicka in his defense of liberalism. With a view to avoiding the problems of both liberalism and humanism, I shall draw an analogy between friendship and political relationships and propose a definition of the latter that will show we need not incur the dangers of appealing to religious or national identities or the like in order make political participation intrinsicly valuable.