Liberty,Equality, Nobility: Kolnai,Tocqueville, and the Moral Foundations of Democracy

Abstract

Though few would attach the label of liberal to Dostoevsky as a thinker his life and work can be seen as motivated by a concern for human freedom. As an editor and author he advocated a course of action for his nation's intelligentsia that would transform the Russian autocracy into a liberal regime. This course of action was dictated by his insight into the necessary foundation for a liberal regime, a principle of self-abnegation that rested in turn on the conviction that human beings share in an immortal principle. This insight points to and gives content to the true goal of the liberal regime, the recognition and protection of human dignity.