The problems arising from the conflation of morality and politics are
evident in the work of another liberal: Thomas Nagel. According to
him, the difficulty for political theory is that 'political institutions and
their theoretical justification try to externalize the demands of the
impersonal standpoint. But they have to be staffed and supported and
brought to life by individuals for whom the impersonal standpoint
coexists with the personal, and this has to be reflected in their
design/
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Nagel believes that in order to be able to defend the
acceptability of a political order, we need to reconcile an impartial
concern for everyone with a view of how each individual can
reasonably be expected to live. Nagel proposes that we should start
with the conflict that each individual encounters in himself between
the impersonal standpoint that produces a powerful demand for
universal impartiality and equality and the personal standpoint that
gives rise to individualistic motives which impede the realization of
those ideals.