327 | Cass Sunstein on Liberalism

<p>"Liberalism," divorced from its particular connotations in this or that modern political context, refers broadly to a philosophy of individual rights, liberties, and responsibilities, coupled with respect for institutions and rule of law over personalized power. As Cass Sunstein construes the term, liberalism encompasses a broad tent, from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to Martin Luther King and Franklin Roosevelt. But liberalism is being challenged both from the right and from the left, by those who think that individual liberties can go too far. We talk about the philosophical case for liberalism as well as the challenges to it in modern politics, as discussed in his new book <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049771/on-liberalism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom</em></a>.</p> <p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/09/01/327-cass-sunstein-on-liberalism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/09/01/327-cass-sunstein-on-liberalism/</a></p> <p>S<em>upport Mindscape on </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Cass Sunstein received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and worked as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He is currently Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. He served in several government roles during the Obama administration. He is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170801153300/http://holberg.uib.no/en/news/holberg-prize/holberg-prize-and-nils-klim-prize-laureates-2017-announced" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recognized</a> as "by far the most cited legal scholar in the United States and probably the world."</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/cass-r-sunstein/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harvard web page</a></li> <li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ddq2_gkAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Scholar publications</a></li> <li><a href="https://casssunstein.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Substack</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001ILMC6A?ccs_id=170570fa-d186-40d9-9492-00807245dcac" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon author page</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Sunstein" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li> </ul> <p><br /></p>