Dagger

After reading some of the previous posts, I must say that I agree with others. I have always understood liberalism and republicanism to be incompatible and at odds with each other. Dagger, in the first few chapters, attempts to show how these ideas can work together.

The examples that he used were good aid in understanding this relationship that seems oxymoronic. One of the main claims that liberals make is self autonomy. Dagger attempts to explain that community is needed to protect autonomy and rights. For example, children(infants) might have innate autonomy, but others are needed to aid them in developing and achieving it. Dagger further quotes Fineberg, who says that to respect a person is to think of him as a potential maker of claims. Dagger connects this to the idea that there have to be others who are going to respond to those claims, showing that liberalism and republicanism can be interconnected.