4 ms·

I don't think it ever was the _highest_ good. It may be argued that it has moved around the hierarchy, and it may in fact not be at an all time high, but there

• beaconstudios 8y ago
  early American history strikes me as being punctuated by periods where individual liberty was the highest value. The frontier/westward expansion, for example. The constitution itself seems hinged on optimising for personal liberty by balancing "freedom to" and "freedom from" liberties. I always thought of personal liberty as the value from which other values derive. For example, the law exists to protect our rights (the right to life and the right to property being the most obvious examples) from bad actors. Social welfare and socialised healthcare restrict the damage that personal catastrophe and random chance can do to our freedoms.