Reshaping civil society to support human flourishing depends on recovering an understanding of liberty as directional, as freedom for something.

The Crisis of Liberty in the West

by Ryan Anderson - Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy



SUMMARY 

The West faces a deep crisis of liberty. 

• Full human flourishing is hindered by the dawning collapse of civil society and by crony capitalism and cultural cronyism. 
• Natural law arguments, with their appreciation of rights and duties, provide a better framework than natural rights or utilitarian arguments for understanding economic liberty; a natural law conception of social justice recognizes the state’s role in economic justice but also requires respect for the proper authority of society. 
• Globalization and new technologies are only a part of the problem. 
• The solution to the crisis requires a better intellectual foundation for freedom and a renewed common understanding of what human flourishing looks like. 

This lecture was delivered as the annual Calihan Lecture on December 1, 2016, in London, England, at a conference sponsored by the Acton Institute on “The Crisis of Liberty in the West” at which Dr. Anderson received the Michael Novak Award for “outstanding scholarly research concerning the relationship between religion, economic freedom, and the free and virtuous society.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The crisis of liberty in the West has its roots in an inadequate understanding of the person, deficient arguments for liberty, and the weakening of civil society.
• Reshaping civil society to support human flourishing depends on recovering an understanding of liberty as directional, as freedom for something.
• Human flourishing and economic freedom are intertwined; understanding liberty would help us to address both the economic and the moral crises facing our world today.

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