{"id":219,"date":"2015-06-22T16:17:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T16:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/?p=219"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T04:50:44","slug":"competing-visions-of-the-future-socialist-and-classical-liberal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/competing-visions-of-the-future-socialist-and-classical-liberal\/","title":{"rendered":"Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist and Classical Liberal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>IHS Advanced Studies Summer Seminar, \u201cLiberty &amp; Scholarship: Challenges and Critiques\u201d Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA.<\/p>\n<p>Date: 13-19 June, 2015<\/p>\n<p>Lectures on:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>&#8220;The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years&#8221; &#8211; two lectures<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Images of Liberty and Power: State Propaganda and its Subversion&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist and Classical Liberal&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Lecture 3. &#8220;Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist and Classical Liberal&#8221; &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/liberty\/Lectures\/2015\/IHS\/4-VisionsFuture\/IHS2015-VisionsFuture.pdf\">PDF 6MB<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/liberty\/Lectures\/2015\/IHS\/4-VisionsFuture\/Lecture\/Lecture4-VisionsFuture.html\">HTML<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/metropolis03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/metropolis03.jpg\" alt=\"metropolis03\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-220\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Outline: One\u2019s vision of the future depends upon one\u2019s attitudes towards the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>human nature: will it stay the same or must it be changed?<\/li>\n<li>social and economic institutions: will they be similar to those which exist today or will new ones replace them?<\/li>\n<li>the role of the State and other coercive institutions: can people run their own lives harmoniously or do they need guidance and control?<\/li>\n<li>science and technology: should one be optimistic or pessimistic about their impact?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Long socialist tradition of writing utopian visions of a future socialist society, with the following features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the economic problem of scarcity and the knowledge problem have been eliminated<\/li>\n<li>the creation of a \u201cNew Socialist Man\u201d<\/li>\n<li>children prepared for life in the new society by being taken from their families, public schooling, service in the military<\/li>\n<li>communal living, ownership of property, working arrangements<\/li>\n<li>the end of wage labour and profits<\/li>\n<li>rule by a wise and humane managerial elite who rationally plan all aspects of society and the economy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Examples of socialist visions of the future: from the garden of Eden to Star Trek<\/p>\n<p>CLs have far fewer utopian visions of the future (why?) but many dystopian visions of the state run wild:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>some examples of a CL utopian future: from Bastiat to Ayn Rand<\/li>\n<li>examples of a CL dystopian future: from Eugen Richter to \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The CL dilemma: there is no one vision of a free, peaceful, and prosperous future society. How then to accommodate different people pursuing their own different visions of the \u201cgood life\u201d?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nozick\u2019s idea of competing utopias in a \u201cframework for utopias\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Kukathas &#8211; the liberal archipelago of \u201cdifferent jurisdictions operating in a sea of mutual toleration\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IHS Advanced Studies Summer Seminar, \u201cLiberty &amp; Scholarship: Challenges and Critiques\u201d Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA. Date: 13-19 June, 2015 Lectures on: &#8220;The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years&#8221; &#8211; two lectures &#8220;Images of Liberty and Power: State Propaganda and its Subversion&#8221; &#8220;Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist &#8230; <a title=\"Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist and Classical Liberal\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/competing-visions-of-the-future-socialist-and-classical-liberal\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist and Classical Liberal\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-talks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204812,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/204812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}