ABSTRACT
I need first to clarify what I mean by ‘liberalism’ and the political ramifications of its conception of the nature of human beings. Second, I shall go on to say some positive things about the abstract nature of that conception. For it is precisely its abstractness that distinguishes it from the authoritarianism inherent in the conception of the nature of human beings proposed by its communitarian critics. Finally, I shall give an account of the elements which go to make up that ‘individual’: the absence of externally determined purpose; autonomy; universality; and the exercise of choice.
