William Galston, for instance, maintains that the three most
important advocates of the neutral state, Rawls, Dworkin and
Ackerman, cannot avoid reference to a substantive theory of the good,
which he calls 'rationalist humanism'. He claims that, without
acknowledging it, they 'covertly rely on the same triadic theory of the
good, which assumes the worth of human existence, the worth of
human purposiveness and of fulfilment of human purposes, and the
worth of rationality as the chief constraint on social principles and
actions'.
2
According to Galston, liberals should adopt a 'perfectionisf
stance and state openly that liberalism promotes a specific conception
of the good and is committed to the pursuit of the ends and virtues that
are constitutive of the liberal polity.