On April 7, 2013, the Arizona Center for the Philosophy of Freedom hosted a workshop on Jacob Levy’s book manuscript, Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom, which will be published by Oxford University Press. Jacob is the Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. His book explores the problematic role in liberal political theory of “intermediate groups” — associations, churches, cultural groups, local levels of government, universities, and (in a qualified sense) the family. Jacob investigates the ways in which these intermediate groups can allow us to exercise our liberty and also how they can stifle it, suggesting that liberal theorists must ultimately embrace the tensions inherent in the task of finding an acceptable role for intermediate groups in a free society. Comments on the manuscript were delivered in two 90-minute sessions by Samuel Fleischacker and Eric Mack.  For more information about the workshop participants, please follow the links below:

Speaker:
Jacob Levy, McGill University

Commentators:
Samuel Fleischacker, University of Illinois at Chicago
Eric Mack, Tulane University