Individuality inviolate: William Hazlitt's libertarian political theory

Abstract

During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, William Hazlitt came to prominence almost as much for his impassioned radical politics as for the quality of his literary work. His questioning of the reactionary cultural ethos, along with his espousal of libertarian politics made him unpopular with conservative elements in the English Regency period. Hazlitt's modern reputation, however, rests largely on his literary contribution as a Romantic essayist and dramatic critic. His political writing tends to be overlooked or dismissed merely as critical rather than theoretical. This thesis maintains that Hazlitt developed a distinctively libertarian position that contrasted strongly with other contemporary viewpoints. A summary of his natural rights based political theory appears in his 'Project for a New Theory of Civil and Criminal Legislation', an essay published posthumously. While this work seems fairly conventional and derivative of other thinkers, it proves more exceptional on closer examination. For instance, it draws novel distinctions between political justice that entails rights and moral justice that involves duties. The secularism of the 'Project' is another distinctive feature of this work that is theoretical but not abstract. In a related work, Hazlitt reinforces his case for individual freedom, as well as providing a libertarian basis of sociability. The Essay on the Principles of Human Action most comprehensively explains Hazlitt's moral theory. It suggests that although individuals must be partially self-interested to survive, they are also naturally other-regarding. Their natural disinterestedness makes them sympathetic to others. In order to realise their natural sociability, however, humans require political and intellectual freedom. In this way, Hazlitt's moral and political theories correlate to form a highly distinctive libertarian position that is reflected in much of his writing.