Robert P. George on Free Speech, Philosophical Liberalism, and Conservatism
The Good Fight | Yascha Mounk with Robert P. George
Yascha Mounk and Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, Robert P. George, discuss the state of universities today, John Rawls, and why democratic republics can’t function without free speech. As George explains, “I think the situation is rather dire when people are censoring themselves or not saying what they believe or not even asking certain questions. You can't run academic institutions that way. You can't run a democratic republic that way…”
As George elucidates, “[It’s] terrible for institutions of higher learning, colleges and universities. It makes it impossible for us to prosecute our fundamental mission, the mission of pursuing knowledge of truth, but it's also terrible for a democratic republic…if we're to rule ourselves well…we're going to have to freely consider what's to be said on the competing sides of the various proposals.”
As for what’s behind it, George speaks to the impulse of those who seek power and control: “Ordinary authoritarians are content to forbid people from saying things they believe to be true. Totalitarians aren't content with that, they take the additional step of forcing people to say things they don't believe are true. And we have moved from that authoritarian impulse to the totalitarian impulse in too many sectors.”
The two go on to discuss Rawls, conceiving of justice as fairness but also “giving each his due,” the “original position”/“veil of ignorance,” how to take into account our fellow citizens’ conscience in terms of religious beliefs, who should determine the principles of justice, “perfectionist” vs. “anti-perfectionist” liberalism, the value of a republic vs. an unmediated democracy, and much more.
“Freedom doesn't mean you're going to get the truth,” George explains. “You might get things really profoundly wrong in circumstances of freedom. But I consider those circumstances much healthier for the truth-seeking enterprise than when those circumstances disappear, even if it's not because of course of laws or rules. A university might have great free speech rules. But if the culture is a culture of groupthink and conformism, that is absolutely toxic to the truth seeking process… My real goal for my students and myself is to get ourselves to the point where we're not only open to the challenge from others, but we're willing to be our own best critics, to be self-critical to challenge ourselves.”
As for his views on the American idea and conservatism, George believes that “Decentralization, federalism, the limited powers of the national government under the theory of the Constitution…That to me is what conservatism is about and more fundamentally, that to me is what the American idea is all about. That’s what sound political theory in a democratic republic is all about.”
