Humanitarian Liberalism Takes Away Each Individual's Self-Will, Their Property, and Their Private Opinion

The third form of liberal thought is humanitarian liberalism, as represented by Bruno Bauer and his followers.... The humanitarian liberalist criticizes the socialist: "As the citizen does with the state, so the worker makes use of society for his own egoistic purposes. After all, don' t you still have an egoistic purpose-your own welfare?" The humanitarian demands that human action be completely free of egoistic concern. Only there is true humanity found and true liberalism established.

While the politicians thought they had eliminated each individual's own will, self-will (Eigenwille), or willfulness, they did not realize that this self-will found a safe refuge through property (Eigentum).

When socialists take away even property, they do not notice that ownership secures its continuation within ownness (Eigenheit).

No matter how much property is taken away, opinion (Meinung) in the heart remains mine (das Meinige), and to that extent ownership remains. Therefore, we must eliminate not only self-will or private ownership but also private opinion.

--Keiji Nishitani, The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism, trans. Graham Parkes and Setsuko Aihara, SUNY Series in Modern Japanese Philosophy (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990), 114.