What is Liberalism?

While for many in the United States liberalism is understood as a loose category of political identification – whose definition has shifted significantly and not always transparently over the past century – fewer people are familiar with liberal political philosophy despite its overwhelming influence on political discourse both left and right. Our public language and discussions are often littered with the ideas, ideals, phrases, and thoughts of the liberal philosophical tradition: the social contract; individual rights; the state-of-nature; private property; self-determination, autonomy, representation– all these concepts and more find their initial articulations, at least as coherent political doctrines, in the writings of classical liberal thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Especially within Anglo-American political thought, these conversations are dominant to this day when more recent liberal thinkers like John Rawls (and his critics) have become extraordinarily influential within mainstream political and legal philosophy. But what is the relationship between liberal political philosophy and the modern state? How did liberal ideas become institutions? What are the connections between classical liberal thought and liberalism as it is widely understood in the United States? How should we understand liberalism in distinction from “neoliberalism”? What, in a word, is liberalism?

In this class, we will study both key foundational texts as well as more contemporary debates to begin to answer these questions. We will read Hobbes’ Leviathan, as well as brief excerpts of his lesser known Behemoth, Locke’s Second Treatise, and Rousseau’s The Social Contract as well as excerpts from his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. In our final week, we will examine some excerpts from John Rawls A Theory of Justice, as well as selections from the many debates around Rawls, from Robert Nozick on the libertarian right to G.A. Cohen on the socialist left. We will seek to situate liberalism today by looking to critical theorist and social philosopher Jurgen Habermas and the economist and political thinker Amartya Sen and their reactions to Rawls and the liberal tradition as well as definitional ideas about neoliberalism from Phillip Mirowksi and David Harvey. The class will be an opportunity for students not only to study these key texts but also to come to a deeper and more rigorous understanding of liberalism, how it has changed over the years, the position it occupies in contemporary society, and what, if any, future it holds.

There *is* no physical Brooklyn Institute. We hold our classes all over (thus far) Brooklyn and Manhattan, in alternative spaces ranging from the back rooms of bars to bookstores to spaces in cultural centers, including the Center for Jewish History, the Goethe-Institut, and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. We can (and do) turn any space into a classroom. You will be notified of the exact location when you register for a class.