Abstract: From the right or from the left, French or Anglo-American, liberalism finds its origins in liberality, and more specifically in the Roman liberalitas. Yet this liberalitas looks nothing like a one-handed deity, no more so, in fact, than the powerful “hand of god” from the Bible or than the omnipresent “invisible hand” from Smith. Thus, how can we justify our politico-economic understanding of liberalism by continuing to define it in such a hemiplegic manner?
