Does liberalism promote an absolute levelling of loves, so that a moral agent is not to give preference to a family member over a stranger, all other things being equal?
Just as there is no real common good to be aimed at if there is no real community, can there be true solidarity (understood as not only encompassing legal justice but civic friendship as well) either? What regard can one have for one's fellows, if they are strangers, unproven and untested, and do not really regard him as one of their own? Sympathy as a motive for rendering assistance to another can only go so far. One's fellow citizens may not be fellows, after all - no shared living, no familiarity, no trust. Is it reasonable then to expect the exercise of solidarity from people living in such a collective of individuals and families?
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