Adumbration

The discussion starts with characterizing three aspects of liberalism: substantive (a set of principles), procedural (societal organization), and temperamental (individual willingness to experiment).

Liberalism (5/11/2009) - Alan Wolfe, Professor of Political Science at Boston College and author of The Future of Liberalism, talks about liberalism. Wolfe argues that the essence of liberalism is giving as many people as possible control over their own lives. Wolfe traces the evolution of liberalism through Western civilization. He rejects the distinction between modern liberalism and classical liberalism seeing Adam Smith as a liberal but not F. A. Hayek. The conversation closes with a discussion of the role of competition in encouraging religiosity in the United States.