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WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 7, 2025


** This Week on Civil Discourse
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** Liberty Matters: Hume & Rousseau on Liberty
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David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were two Enlightenment thinkers who held opposing views of liberty amid enduring tensions in Western civil discourse. Hume understood freedom as grounded in stable institutions and the refinements of civilized life, while Rousseau contended that it required equality, vigilance, and political boldness. Their exchange serves as a reminder that the meaning of liberty in the West has always been forged through dialogue, debate, and the contest of competing visions.
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** What steps can restore civil debate as both a unifying practice of freedom and a safeguard of self-government?
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** “The long-term prospects for liberty are best served by open reflection alone.” — Pierre F. Goodrich
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For the Founding Fathers, civil discourse was not merely a matter of manners: it was understood as both a practical safeguard of liberty and a moral duty of self-government. The ability to argue, deliberate, and compromise was regarded as indispensable to a republic founded on consent rather than coercion. By tracing the roots of civil discourse in American history and examining its role in preserving freedom, we gain insight into both its resilience and its fragility. This week’s featured resources consider how hope, trust, and renewed habits of respectful dialogue are essential to preserving the living practice of liberty.


** Articles
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** Bias Response Teams Silence Civic Debate ([link removed])
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George R. La Noue, Law and Liberty ([link removed])

Bias response teams claim to protect community but often suppress the open exchange essential to civic life. Liberty depends not only on rights but also on safeguarding the conditions for free debate.
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** Review: The Soul of Civility ([link removed])
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Aeon J. Skoble, Online Library of Liberty ([link removed])

When public life is reduced to outrage, we forget that liberty depends on civility. Aeon Skoble’s review of The Soul of Civility reminds us that freedom endures through respect, restraint, and the habits of civil discourse.


** A Liberal and Civic Education for All ([link removed])
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J. Michael Hoffpauir, Law and Liberty ([link removed])

When education is seen only as training for work or politics, we forget that lasting questions of liberty turn on how citizens are formed. Enduring freedom depends on cultivating the habits of mind and character that enable people to deliberate, to govern themselves, and to sustain the civic life of a free society.


** Civic Education is Not Enough ([link removed])
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Lee Trepanier, Online Library of Liberty ([link removed])

Liberty depends as much on what citizens know as on what leaders do. As David Davenport warns, the decline of civic education threatens the foundations of self-rule. Lasting freedom requires informed citizens who can sustain trust, participation, and the habits of self-government.



** The Order of Representative Democracy ([link removed])
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John O. McGinnis, Law and Liberty ([link removed])

Democracy is more than elections; it rests on decorum, deliberation, and civil discourse. As John McGinnis notes, liberty endures when institutions uphold these norms and citizens expect more than spectacle from public life.


** Podcasts
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** Monica Guzman on Curiosity and Conversation in Contentious Times ([link removed])
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EconTalk Podcast ([link removed])
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** Yuval Levin on Hope and Politics in America ([link removed])
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The Future of Liberty Podcast ([link removed])
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** The West’s Quest ([link removed])
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The Law & Liberty Podcast ([link removed])


** Videos
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** A Conversation with James M. Buchanan ([link removed])
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Intellectual Portrait Series ([link removed])

James M. Buchanan reminds us that freedom endures through institutions—structures that channel human self-interest, limit power, and make genuine self-government possible.
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