Any serious discussion of liberalism should begin by looking at its historical context. The liberal worldview is not a collection of abstract ideas that can be fitted into different situations and eras at the user’s convenience. Liberalism developed in the Western world in a specific culture and time period, which was the early modern era. While it incorporated principles and rhetoric taken from older traditions of thought, including classical antiquity and the Bible, what was liberal gained currency with the rise of the Western bourgeoisie.
