ABSTRACT
Questions at the heart of political philosophy include the following: (1) What is the purpose of government? (2) How do governments gain legitimacy? (3) Are there limits to what governments can or should do? and (4) What does it mean to live in a free society? Answering questions like these requires that we give some thought to what people mean when they talk about things like government and law, justice and fairness, private property and the public good, and freedom and democracy. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, these concepts have been connected to the idea of eudaimonia or a good life. (The term itself has often been translated as “a life that is flourishing” or “a life that is thriving,” or “a life filled with happiness.”) It is by examining the ideas of thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Bentham, Kant, Burke, Berlin and others that we gain an awareness of many of the core ideas underlying modern liberal democracy.
