Varieties of Skepticism
Skepticism may be protective of individual liberty, when this is threatened by dogmatists whose view of the world is unclouded by doubt. Many of the major thinkers in the Western tradition can be classified as skeptics of this kind, and this institute will feature a group of leading scholars who will examine the skeptical turn.
- Montaigne: What Do I Know?, Alan Charles Kors, University of Pennsylvania, History
- Pascal: Reasons of the Heart, Alan Charles Kors
- French Moralists on Self-Delusion, Jon Elster, Columbia University, Philosophy
- Burke on Political Geometry, Roger Scruton, Institute of Psychological Sciences
- John Stuart Mill on Liberty, Christopher E. Hitchens, Writer
- A Public Choice Perspective, Robert D. Cooter, Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley
- Isaiah Berlin and Michael Oakeshott, Kenneth Minogue, London School of Economics
Alan Charles Kors is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published extensively on European thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and is the author of Atheism in France and the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. John Elster is the author of numerous books, including The Cement of Society, Political Psychology and, most recently, Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective. Roger Scruton is a preeminent British philosopher, and the author of many books. Christopher Hitchens has written widely on a number of subjects in many periodicals, including The Nation, London Review of Books and The Washington Post. Robert Cooter is one of the most respected law-and-economics scholars and the author of The Strategic Constitution. Kenneth Minogue has written extensively on political theory. His works include The Liberal Mind, The Concepts of a University and Politics: A Very Short Introduction.