This episode of The Liberal Soul is all about video games. I am joined by my two longtime friends Justin and Matt to list our top five favourite video games. We also chat along the way about why we love video games, what our earliest memories of them are, what they have done for our lives, and much more. Thanks for listening to the show!  Twitter: @Liberalsoul87 Email: theliberalsoul87@gmail.com Direct Downloads: theliberalsoul87.libsyn.com ..read more

In this episode I discuss parts of the book The Conservative Sensibility by the American writer George Will. I wanted to branch out a little and read a book that is infused with Conservative philosophy to chew on. I especially was interested in Conservative philosophy that has no time for the modern manifestation of the alt right and QANON thinking; as well as a philosophy that self identifies as not needing theism. George Will manages to eschew both of those liabilities. In the book I talk about: - The universality of human nature - Natural Rights at the heart of the American founding - and t ..read more

This is the second part of two on the book The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch. In this episode I discuss elements of the book such as: James Madison as a harbinger for the Constitution of Knowledge, the Falibilist and Empirical rules, earned authority and credibility, the reality based community is not the only community, a lesson from wikipedia, innovation in the social and political world, being thick skinned, cancelling as performance, what to say, free expression as protecting minority rights, walking away and not taking the bait, and sticking to what the reality based communi ..read more

This is part one of a two parter on the book The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathan Rauch. This book is about how we socially gather knowledge, and how it is distributed and adhered to in what Rauch calls the reality based community. I conceived of this book as being related to the liberal soul in the idea that knowledge is about disconfirmation; thus is something we only have provisionally, but still with degrees of certainty. This formulation always allows for further work to be done without ever having a final goal of knowledge.  In part one I discuss different backgrounds to Rauch ..read more

This episode is part two of a four part series on the book The Open Society And Its Enemies by Karl Popper. Please listen to episode one before this as it will give context for this episode. In this episode I discuss: - Plato's formulation about who should rule is a useless question - rather we should ask how we can make institutions that prevent bad rulers from doing too much harm, as many to most rulers are below average in real life. - Shortcomings in a democratic state are the responsibility of the citizens in that state and should not be blamed on democracy itself. - Focusing on the quest ..read more

Welcome to part one of a four part mini-series on the book The Open Society And Its Enemies by Karl Popper. This book is a Promethean level of fresh air intellectually when it comes to understanding how a free society can operate; and what are the kind of mentalities that are opposed to that. Even though it is mentioned as unknowing in the episode, this book was published in 1945. It comes in two volumes, and for this episode I will be talking about the first half of volume one. In today's episode I discuss that parts of Poppers argument that deal with: - Historicism as Popper's catch all idea ..read more

In this solo episode I talk about the 1841 essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This essay had a profound effect on my life when I first read it, and I still go back to it every year or so for inspiration. Emerson talks about the psychological importance of non-conformity, of trusting your own mind, and being the author of your own creations and endeavors. Here is a link to the essay if you are interested in reading it: https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/selfreliance.html ..read more

In this episode of The Liberal Soul I take a little detour down a Karl Popper path and discuss a section from his book The Open Society And Its Enemies. There is an incredible section of that book where Popper dissects the difference between individualism and egoism; and how Plato conflated them for his own propaganda. By equating individualism with egoism, Plato made it easy to dismiss as uncaring, selfish, and without interest in altruism. Popper points out a simple error in logic from Plato that leads to this (intentional?) misunderstanding.  Popper points out that individualism in the ..read more

This episode is the second in a two-parter talking about the book A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik. In part two, I'll be talking about Gopnik's observations of why the Right and Left politically dislike liberals.  Some of the things I talk about are: - Liberals and Conservatives having different temperaments - and that they both share a tragic view of life but the liberal believes in the possibility of incremental improvement over time - Strong man politics is the norm in the human history, not the aberration. The question isn't "how does it arise" but rather "what has ever kept i ..read more

This episode of The Liberal Soul is part one of a two part reflection on the 2019 book A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik. I have mentioned this book a couple times in the first couple episodes, so I wanted to give it its due here. This book was the proximate impetus for this podcast as I recall being quite inspired and educated when I first read it. In part one I talk about: - Liberalism being an emergent philosophy with the discovery that other people have a moral conscience as well as ourselves. This helps us move out of solipsism because we can understand that other people feel the p ..read more