We Cease to Be Mere Fragments:Justice, Alienation, Liberalism and Socialism

What is the relationship between liberalism and socialism? Partisans of each political tradition often focus on the shortcomings of the other, with socialists charging liberals with defending merely formal ideas of freedom, which lead them to a naïve defence of the status quo, while liberals often view socialists as excessively utopian, and as blind to the ways in which collective forms of economic organisation can lead to oppression. This article examines the prospects for a more eirenic understanding of the relationship between liberalism and socialism, by means of examining the significance of the main points of contention between canonical representatives of each tradition, Rawls and Marx. By examining questions relating to the limits of liberal rights, the problems of alienation and self-realisation in work, the place of distributive principles in socialist views, and the possibility of a society beyond justice, the article defends a partial reconciliation between these two traditions.