Liberalism, modernity and their critics

Abstract

Serving as an introduction to the subject under analysis, and not presenting any one point of view in particular, this text begins by gathering some empirical evidence on the existing concerns as to the current state of liberal democracies. The author goes on to recall some of the main critiques of contemporary liberalism, such as those of Michael Sander and Alasdair Maclntyre and Leo Strauss' critique of the so-called «three waves of modernity». The text ends by recalling some aspects of Adam Smith's moral sentiment theory and Edmund Burke' s critique of the French Revolution, suggesting that these hardly correspond to the current characterization of contemporary liberalism.