This passage begs a lot of questions. "Common Good Constitutionalists" ask, "Hey libertarians, what do you think is 'the good'"? Here's a thread on our NeoAristotelian answer and why it requires the protection of natural rights and a written constitution. https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/40/#.XqQoH0r2d6M.twitter https://twitter.com/DrewHolden360/status/1253143758218104834

"According to this approach, there are six fundamental features of the human good. The good for humans is (1) objective, (2) inclusive, (3) individualized, (4) agent-relative, (5) self-directed, and (6) social. We shall briefly describe each of these features...." [snip]

"Considering that the list of abstract goods and virtues that is subordinate to the end of human flourishing is long, and that there are several billion people in the world, each of whom has a different package of such goods, it is impossible,..."

we suggest, to specify any political or legal system that can ensure human flourishing for everyone.... Why is this?..."

"Partly it is because of the serious knowledge problem
involved: if each person cannot be sure what it takes for him or her to flourish, it would be much more difficult for remote rulers to know what it would take for millions of persons unknown to them to flourish...."

"Partly it is because of the serious problems of interest
involved: assuming such knowledge of the requirements of flourishing for others truly existed, what assurances do we have that enacted laws will truly reflect those requirements. Yet, it is even more than this...."

"Human flourishing can only be real, can only be something that is valuable, when it is the good for some person. For this to occur, it has to be more than an abstraction..."

It must obtain its particular form or character by being melded with the unique features of the person. In other words, the basic or generic goods must be given appropriate weight and proportion--we must act in accordance with our 'means'..."

"but this requires that we exercise the central intellectual virtue of practical wisdom. Yet, what has not always been recognized is that the virtue of practical wisdom can only
occur through human agency or self-direction...."

"Because human flourishing is and must be a self-directed activity, lawmakers can no more provide the basis for human flourishing than they can provide the basis for empathy and compassion, or even for physical fitness...." [snip]

"Though a political or legal order cannot be the means
by which human flourishing is achieved, the right kind of legal order can be viewed as a necessary precondition for the possibility that human flourishing can take place in a social context..."

"which, given the nature of human sociality, is the only place where flourishing can occur.... [snip] Given the
nature of human beings and the nature of human flourishing, how can society be structured to permit each and every individual to engage in the sorts of actions..."

"that constitute flourishing without favoring the
flourishing of any one person over that of another?
This problem is not the same as the ethical problem of how persons should live their lives. It is a structural problem that is distinctly political/legal...."

"Having identified it as a problem, and one that is
distinct from the problems that are answered by ethical theory, we are now in a position to define a good society. A good society is one in which this social problem is handled well..."

"in which there exists a political/legal structure that permits each and every individual to engage in the sorts of actions that constitute flourishing without favoring the flourishing of any one person over that of another."

"A good society is one in in which there exists a
political/legal structure that permits each and every individual to engage in the sorts of actions that constitute flourishing without favoring the flourishing of any one person over that of another....

"And the means by which this problem is solved, therefore, will provide the specific characteristics that determine the extent to which any particular society is 'good.'... [snip] How then can we solve the problem of flourishing in a social context?..."

"Human flourishing or actualization is an activity that needs to be performed by each person for him or herself. The precondition for this activity that everyone shares is the recognition of a jurisdiction or space within which each person is free to make her own decisions, &.."

"exercise her own choices in pursuit of happiness, or the actualization of her potential. The principles that define the moral space or jurisdiction within which people may exercise self-direction in pursuit of their self-actualization are correctly referred to as NATURAL RIGHTS.

"And given that these rights secure the liberty to pursue happiness, they can more particularly be characterized as "liberty rights." These liberty rights consist of the right of property, freedom of contract, first possession, self-defense, and restitution.'..."

"Together they can be taken as defining the specific contours of a right to liberty. A good society is, in short,
one in which the right to liberty is effectively protected. For the protection of liberty, so defined, is the precondition for each and every person to flourish..."

"without preferring the flourishing of any one person to any other.... Let us assume one has discovered a form of government that can provide a legal system which protects the rights that are preconditions of human flourishing from violation by both private persons..."

"and by the government itself. In this event, a written constitution, INTERPRETED ACCORDING TO ITS ORIGINAL MEANING, can serve to 'lock in' that particular form of government...."

"A written constitution, so interpreted, can help resist deviations from this form of government, deviations that would endanger the rights that are the preconditions for the achievement of human flourishing."

Read Doug Rasmussen's and my article here:
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/40/#.XqQoH0r2d6M.twitter