The Liberalism of Fear

Shklar's essay puts cruelty first — not liberty, not equality, not justice. The argument is that we can disagree endlessly about what the good life requires while agreeing readily about what we most want not to happen to us, and that a political order built on the second is sturdier than one built on the first.

The part I keep returning to: she insists this isn't pessimism but a claim about where agreement is actually available. That's a methodological point disguised as a substantive one, and it applies well beyond her subject.