This interview was originally published on Princeton University Press. How can today’s liberal democracies withstand the illiberal wave sweeping the globe? What can revive our waning faith in constitutional democracy? Tocqueville’s Dilemmas, and Ours argues that Alexis de Tocqueville, one of democracy’s greatest champions and most incisive critics, can guide us forward. Drawing on Tocqueville’s major works and
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Sir Roger Scruton, in memoriam: A Platonic Tribute
Sir Roger Scruton – professor of philosophy, author, political thinker, composer, theorist of music, barrister, ecologist, wine connoisseur, publicist and gadfly at large—passed away this January 12. As the sad news broke, a global outpouring of tributes began, testifying to the magnitude of Scruton’s achievement and provoking questions about its meaning. Among the first, Timothy Garton Ash tweeted his sadness for the loss of a “provocative, sometimes outrageous Conservative thinker that a truly liberal society should be glad to have challenging it.”
Reflecting on the Lecture Series on Popular Sovereignty
The night of the UK election, my phone lit up with a series of texts: “They’ve figured out how to make supporting fascism woke They’ve figured out how to make opposing fascism unwoke They’ve cracked the code” I read the texts while half asleep and responded: “Are you listening to Red Scare?” But my friend
Thinking Outside the Framework: Reflections on a Liberal Arts Education
It is likely that the words “Liberal Arts Education Panel” have been swimming through your subconscious as of late. These words were printed onto pretty paper flyers placed around campus within your easy view; they made the difficult but certain journey through cyberspace – presumably from the P98a admin building, in the form of magical
Perspectivalism Without Relativism
This post originally appeared on Public Seminar. Republished with their kind permission. Earlier this month, Susan Henking, President of Shimer College (my alma mater), wrote for Public Seminar what she called “my educated hope for Shimer and for liberal education,” a hope “rooted in a criticism of the ways we have been commodified, [forced to] meet
The Faculty Podcast: A Conversation with Ewa Atanassow
The blog team continues the series of discussions with members of the Bard College Berlin faculty. Our guest today is Prof. Dr. Ewa Atanassow, who will be teaching a course on “Equality“ in the Spring Semester 2014. Prof. Dr. Ewa Atanassow has received a PhD from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, an
Playing Democracy
Willy Brandt, Germany’s first – malicious tongues might say only – left wing post-war chancellor was born in 1913. One hundred years later, the Deutsches Theater in Berlin showed the play “Democracy,” in which Michael Frayn tells of the rise and fall of one of Germany’s most important political figures of the 20th century. The
Survival Kits for Apocalypses: Georgi Gospodinov at ECLA
On the 6th of June, the ECLA community welcomed Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. The evening entitled Survival Kits for Apocalypses included readings from Gospodinov’s play The Apocalypse Comes at 6 pm (in which two ECLA students were also involved in the reading), from his poetry, and from the latest novel The Physics of Sorrow. Georgi Gospodinov also presented some of his