PHI 245 LIBERALISM(S)

"Liberal democracy" has been heralded as a supreme value of "the West" since Russia's attack on Ukraine. Where disagreements once focused on differing interpretations of liberalism’s demands or on balancing liberalism’s conflicting goals of freedom and equality, now populist movements on both the left and the right are challenging the legitimacy of liberalism itself. Internationally, leaders like Hungary's Viktor Orban defend "illiberal democracy." From the domestic “right," liberalism is often dismissed as "the L-word," associated with "wokeism"; it thereby becomes a cudgel in our "culture wars." From "the left," liberalism is tied to "neoliberalism" and concerns about global capitalism. Situating these current debates in the context of historic arguments about the meanings of liberalism, the course aims to figure out whether some version of liberalism is worth unabashedly defending today.