Personal Sovereignty: Natural or Institutional? | Laura Valentini

Описание: Keynote Lecture: "Personal Sovereignty: Natural or Institutional?”
Laura Valentini (LMU Munich)
PPE Society London First Annual Meeting
July 16-18, 2025
Bush House, King's College London

Abstract: An almost universally accepted dogma within the liberal philosophical tradition is that each person possesses a domain of personal sovereignty —that is, a domain within which each may pursue their ends and goals without hindrance from others. In this domain, others’ actions are within one's normative control. So, for example, whether someone is allowed to touch me or take my property is up to me: I am “sovereign” over these matters. In this talk, I explore two pictures of the existence conditions ofpersonal sovereignty so understood. According to one picture, we possess this sovereignty as a matter of “natural morality,” independently of institutions. According to a different picture, while we are all free and equal as a fundamental moral matter, personal sovereignty is only possible when certain institutional arrangements are in place. I argue that, contrary to first appearances, the second, institutionalist picture is more attractive and exhibits greater critical potential than its “naturalist” counterpart.



Annual Meeting hosted by the PPE Society and King's College London
Video recording provided by Yalding Media Ltd.