Speaker Series
2020-2021 Online Speaker Series
The Liberal Imaginary and Beyond
The Liberal Imaginary and Beyond brought together leading thinkers to examine the origins, contents, and development of post-war liberalism, and to consider significant attempts to move beyond the resultant liberal imaginary without casting aside its impressive moral and political achievements. Co-sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge.
Religious Influences on Post-War Liberalism
Malachi Hacohen and Samuel Moyn
Malachi Hacohen and Samuel Moyn discuss the relative influence of Judaism and Christianity upon liberalism’s evolution after the Second World War, as well as the possible role that religious ideas might again play in shaping future developments of political thought. They also explore the limits of the current liberal order and how we might overcome them.
Malachi Hacohen
Professor of History, Political Science, and Religion at Duke University. He is the author of Jacob and Esau: Jewish European History Between Nation and Empire (2019).
Samuel Moyn
Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (2018) and Christian Human Rights (2015).
Secularism and the Political Culture of Modern Societies
Akeel Bilgrami and Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor and Akeel Bilgrami think together about secularism’s influence upon the political culture of modern societies. The conversation will re-examine some of the questions raised in the edited volume, Beyond the Secular West, which examined the applicability of Taylor’s vision of North Atlantic secularism to other regions of the world. Bilgrami and Taylor also discuss the future of capitalism and democracy, questions of collective identity, and our prospects for meaningful social change.
Akeel Bilgrami
The Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and author of Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment (2014).
Charles Taylor
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University and author of A Secular Age (2007).
The Future of Cosmopolitanism
Seyla Benhabib and Kwame Anthony Appiah
Seyla Benhabib and Kwame Anthony Appiah think together about the role that cosmopolitanism can play in shaping ethical and political thought in an age of increasing global integration. They consider the relationship of liberalism to different forms of cosmopolitanism, the possibility of a universal identity, and how cosmopolitanism might find expression within the borders of local and national communities.
Seyla Benhabib
Professor Emerita of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University, and Senior Research Fellow and Professor Adjunct of Law at Columbia Law School. She is the author of Exile, Statelessness, and Migration (2018) and Another Cosmopolitanism (2006).
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University and pens “The Ethicist” column for the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2007) and The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity (2019).
Oneness and Difference in the Discourse on Race
Lawrence Blum and Derik Smith
A key dilemma that has long shaped ethical and political discussions of the legacy of radical injustice concerns the relative importance of “oneness” and “difference.” To what extent, when considering questions of race, should the unity and equality of all humans be emphasized and/or the unique histories, realities, and experiences of historically oppressed peoples be given center stage? In this conversation, Lawrence Blum and Derik Smith think together about this and other related questions, drawing upon both their academic research and their experiences as activists.
Lawrence Blum
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is the author of I’m Not a Racist, But… (2004) and co-author of Integrations: The Struggle for Racial Equality and Civic Renewal in Public Education (forthcoming spring 2021).
Derik Smith
Associate Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College and author of the book, Robert Hayden in Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era (2018).
Worldviews, World Politics, and the Anthropocene
Prasenjit Duara and Bentley B. Allan
Prasenjit Duara and Bentley Allen discuss the role that worldviews play in shaping world politics, focusing particularly on how the background assumptions of the liberal imaginary stimulate environmental degradation. These observations lead them to consider the role that worldview transformation must play in allowing humanity to address the many, pressing crises of the day.
Prasenjit Duara
Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He is the author of The Crisis of Global Modernity (2015).
Bentley B. Allan
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and the author of Scientific Cosmology and International Orders (2018).
Giants of Post-War Liberalism: Isaiah Berlin and John Rawls
Arie M. Dubnov and Andrius Galisanka
Among the many figures who influenced liberal thought after the Second World War, the legacies of Isaiah Berlin and of John Rawls stand out with particular force. In this talk, Arie Dubnov and Andrius Galisanka discuss the respective roles that each of these thinkers played in consolidating the post-war liberal imaginary. They additionally consider the relative strengths and limitations of the two thinkers’ ideas in light of contemporary social and political affairs.
Arie M. Dubnov
The Max Ticktin Chair of Israel Studies at George Washington University and author of Isaiah Berlin: The Journey of a Jewish Intellectual (2012).
Andrius Galisanka
Assistant Professor of Politics and International Studies at Wake Forest University and author of John Rawls: The Path to a Theory of Justice (2019).
Political Theology and the Foundations of Liberal Thought
Luke Bretherton and Charles Mathewes
The discussion of the role of religion, and specifically of Christianity, in public life is central to both modern political and theological thought. Luke Bretherton and Charles Mathewes accordingly discuss their views of the contemporary dilemmas and tasks that the Christian tradition of political theology face, both in historically democratic countries and on the global stage.
Luke Bretherton
The Robert E. Cushman Professor of Moral and Political Theology at the Duke Divinity School and author of Christ and the Common Life: Political theology and the Case for Democracy (2019).
Charles Mathewes
The Carolyn M. Barbour Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and author of The Republic of Grace: Augustinian Thoughts in Dark Times (2010) and A Theology of Public Life (2007).
Confucianism and Modern Political Thought
Joseph Chan and David Wong
Joseph Chan and David Wong consider the role that Confucianism might play in expanding the possibilities of contemporary political thought. They reflect on the extent to which Confucianism should be considered a resource for expanding and reinforcing certain liberal ideals, or as providing an alternative context within which the relative insights and limitations of liberalism can be freshly understood.
Joseph Chan
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong and author of Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy for Modern Times (2015).
David Wong
The Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Professor of Philosophy at Duke University and author of Natural Moralities: A Defense of Pluralistic Relativism (2006).