The Necessity of Free Inquiry
with Peter Robinson
One of the most popular, stimulating courses I’ve offered at Brown—or anywhere—is “Free Inquiry in the Modern World.” Co-designed with my student David Sacks, who has since gone on to Stanford Law, the seminar was meant to get students thinking about the old questions: What does it mean to lead an examined life? And what conditions are necessary in order to lead one? In this clip, I take the Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson through some of the key texts in the course, and talk about why they’re still so vital today.
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Glenn, is there anywhere I could find the syllabus on-line? I would like to read it.
I suggest Glenn do an independent study with John McWhorter for a year before John is permitted to step out of his contained position as a linguist expert for the NYT”s. Perhaps you could invite David Sacks to the podcast for a while