Dr. Michael Hanby and Dr. D.C. Schindler will lead an intellectual retreat for Stanford students on the nature, origin, and aims of liberalism at the Zephyr Institute. The Zephyr Institute is a community of scholars, Stanford students, and professionals committed to gaining a fuller understanding of the human person and the common good in Palo Alto, California.

The day-long event is titled “Is Postliberalism Possible?”  Sessions throughout the day are titled:

• What is Political Philosophy, and How Has It Changed?
• What is Liberalism? Part One: Liberalism as a Theory of Human Nature
• What is Liberalism? Part Two: Liberalism as Technological Order
• The Question of America

The day will conclude with a roundtable discussion with Matthew Crawford, Nathan Pinkoski, and Adrian Walker.

About the Event

An increasing number of political theorists claim that the great experiment of liberalism has failed, and so conversation has begun in many quarters about what an alternative might look like, the possibilities that something might takes its place, and the resources from which to draw to attempt to do so. But proposing something genuinely new requires a sufficient sense of what liberalism in fact is and why it seems to have failed. This series of seminars will explore the nature, origin, and aims of liberalism and attempt to uncover the vision of reality and human nature that it takes for granted, both in its classical form and in its specifically American incarnation. We will then consider some of the basic criticisms that have been made, in order to prepare for a fruitful conversation about what might come next.

More details about the event can be found on the Zephyr Institute website.