Personally I lean towards Hobbes. Here is an excerpt of Leviathan so this OP hits the character limit.
Who is the greatest liberal of all time?
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Thomas pain, he was no fan of the rich capitalists
Hobbes but only because he was basically a materialist (at least in the ways that mattered.) His rudimentary model of human nature lends significant amounts of support for hardline ML policies without being overly essentialist.
Honestly, I prefer Rousseau. His idea that people aren't inherently dicks to each other seems more in line with reality to me. the dickishness is entire imposed by society.
Greatest as in most influential or greatest as in ideologically coherent or greatest in the development of socialism?
Rousseau's arguments are lame but he has disproportionate influence.
Locke is pure ideology.
Paine was funny but got nowhere.
Voltaire was a snarky asshole.
Hobbes for reasons already said by
I meant to post that headshot but I fucked up the OP
Military theory is the most important kind.
greatest as in your personal favorite
I wish Napoleon never existed.
Hegel
...
Pretty much the only liberal I could value as anything more than deserving a bullet is Karl Popper.
Some not already mentioned: Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton, Jackson, Smith, Lincoln, de Gaulle
Horrendous taste.
Literally just a rip-off of Locke. Also a slave owner/rapist and early American libertarian.
Obama
He gets some credit with me because besides Paine (who wasn't very relevant post-French Rev) he was the revolutionary leader who was the most supportive of bourgeois democracy. His libertarianism also made some sense in the context of early America where society was deeply rural and there were plenty of virgins lands to be hand. In his better moments he was very perceptive about the fact that the efforts of common people would be more essential to American development than the remnants of the American aristocracy and the rich merchants who funded the government.
You might have also noticed I included Hamilton in the list and it wasn't because I have any sympathy for that mulatto Tory-in-denial but mainly because his understanding of economic theory was far better than most of his contemporaries. He contributed almost nothing to American politics of value but his ideas on economic development helped the country thrive.
Also pls take the moralism elsewhere thx
Good taste.
now in poll form
strawpoll.me
Sorry
Marx
he's not a liberal, he's the second coming of Jesus. He was free from all ideology.
Reported
Garbage poll.
ITT statists commies, wow big surprise yall jerk off to hobbes
...
This actually
Karl Popper is Horrendous taste, but you shouldn't be talking
Read Marx.