For the second episode of The Liberal Soul I'm very pleased to be joined by my cousin and cohost of our other podcast Really True Fiction: David Parker.

In this episode, David and I chat about the seminal and foundational liberal essay On Liberty (1859) by John Stuart Mill. Here is a link  if you want to read it: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm

In our chat, David and I discuss:

- liberty as a first person endeavor and taking it away fundamentally robs a person of the autonomy of their conscience and consciousness, not just their enfranchisement.

- Without freedom of opinion even the true things that we know lose their vitality and we become lazy in teaching them

- Both Socrates and Jesus were put to death for blasphemy 

- Censorship makes you and your society stupid and doesn't create moral intellects

- Principles cut both ways - that's their whole point.

- The general difficulty in discerning harm and how it needs to be an ongoing negotiation

- New ideas are the energy to prevent social entropy - a truly progressive take

- Art needs individuals who think different

- And finally, how the principles of the Enlightenment are universal and not just for the peoples of Europe and America. Finally, David is the host of The Canadian Story podcast. You can listen to that podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1AP0ujpeDXnyk39hEHTSEG