Freedom in Utopia!

Description

Utopian thinkers are often criticised as naive dreamers. But if we tightly define Utopia as ‘the best possible society’, then this gives us the opportunity to imagine and learn from a morally optimal society that may never exist, but could and should. Are there prisons in Utopia? Is there private property? Who’s in charge? Can the Utopians say and wear what they want? What else can we learn from this Utopian thought experiment? What might it tell us about how freedom interrelates with other values? And about ourselves, and how we live our lives? ‘Freedom in Utopia’ — the book political philosopher Rebecca Lowe is currently writing — offers a new approach to answering the classic question: how free should we be, when we live together as members of a political society? In a series of salons, we will explore this topic together, chapter by chapter. Rebecca will open each salon by sharing her thoughts so far, followed by Q&A and discussion, and then the final 30 minutes of each session will involve group deliberation about a classic, freedom-focused, philosophy paper.