Skepticism, Individuality, and Freedom

Major thinkers grapple with the challenge of this renowned liberal thinker.As one of liberal theory’s most important gadflies, Richard Flathman has during the past four decades produced a significant body of work that is iconoclastic, idiosyncratic, and increasingly influential. Flathman criticizes liberal theory’s role in justifying a politics of governance that has drifted substantially from liberalism’s central commitments to individuality and freedom. It is this challenge, and its implications for the future of liberal theory, that brings together the diverse and distinguished authors of this volume. Topics include the relationships between theory and practice, skepticism and knowledge, individuality and egoism, negative and positive freedom, Hobbes and liberalism, as well as the uneasy connections among liberalism, feminism, and democratic politics. Contributors: Ronald Beiner, U of Toronto; Jane Bennett, Goucher; William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins; Peter Digeser, U of California, Santa Barbara; Richard Friedman, SUNY, Buffalo; Nancy J. Hirschmann, Cornell; George Kateb, Princeton; Patrick Neal, U of Vermont; Anne Norton, U of Pennsylvania; Richard Tuck, Harvard; Jeremy J. Waldron, Columbia; Linda Zerilli, Northwestern.