1. Introduction

Liberalism arose as a theory of the organization and structure of human society. It is not in itself a political theory (which is prescriptive, dealing with how society ought to be governed). Political liberalism takes that theory of society as data constraining how governmental systems should be organized, simultaneously arguing against systems that would return society to more primitive, less beneficial forms of organization. Against that, rationalist constructivism claims that classical liberalism has been supplanted by deliberate reasoning and conscious planning of social organization. This chapter sets up that conflict, as it evolved in philosophy, law, political theory, epistemology, economics, and is even found in seemingly unrelated conflicts in psychology and linguistics.