 When we talk about liberalism and philosophy, we're talking in political philosophy and we're making a distinction really between an ancient and a modern tradition. The ancient tradition in politics viewed the polis as the central thing by which human life would be done. And in that conception the distinction between the state and society was blurred, it was conflated. And also the idea of the human good in that order was a very monistic one. So that view of politics led to the idea that statecraft is soulcraft and that the purpose of the legislator in the state is to help people live worthwhile, wonderful lives, flourishing lives, etc. The modern tradition, however, went far beyond that of the polis and talked about societies. Societies were very cosmopolitan, very open-ended, and also introduced the idea that the human good was much more pluralistic and not so monistic. And in that context the liberal tradition developed. The liberal tradition developed in response to the ancient tradition and the liberal tradition emphasized the idea that peace and liberty was the aim of the political legal order. And theorizing developed out of that. But it was directly in response to the idea that the aim of the state is to make us moral or institutionalize ethics, that liberalism arose. Now regrettably what's happened since then is that older tradition of liberalism has worked its way out in such a way that we really have a liberalism now that is concerned with again making us moral or making us healthy or whatever is a certain leading view of morality. So that's what's happened. But if you talk about liberalism originally, it is a sort of position that says, no, liberty and peace, that's what the state is about, not legislating morality for all of us.