Why Liberty Needs Virtue: Fusionism and the Christian Case for a Free Society, with Stephanie Slade

About this episode

Libertarians agree that freedom is worth defending, but not all libertarians believe that liberty needs virtue in order to survive. In this episode, Stephane Slade, senior editor at Reason and author of the new book Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right , argues that a free society cannot endure unless its people possess the moral habits that make freedom workable — honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility, and respect for the rights of others. Without virtue, citizens eventually demand coercion to protect themselves from one another, and liberty collapses under the weight of fear. The notion that freedom and virtue are not rivals but partners goes by the name of…