For those of you who are interested in the theoretical foundations of a free and open society, I am posting this academic lecture that I gave on Thursday, 10th February 2022 to the Justus Lipsius student association at the University of Leiden’s Law School in Leiden, Netherlands, on the topic, “How Social Complexity Supports Human Flourishing.”
This talk may be of special interest to those who want to understand the deeper philosophical roots of social and institutional pluralism and its importance for a well-ordered society. Below, you can find an abstract of the paper the lecture is based on:
How Social Complexity Supports Human Flourishing
Legal and social pluralists, multiculturalists, public choice theorists, political economists, and virtue theorists, have each contributed different pieces to the case for cherishing social and institutional complexity and steering clear of overly simplified models of order and governance. Rather than merely reiterating these parallel and often complementary arguments, the aim of this paper is to offer a more penetrating ethical account of the value of social complexity than what we currently find in the literature, and to draw some preliminary conclusions from this account about responsible and effective methods for coordinating and governing social order. The aim of good governance and sound social coordination, on the approach I defend, is not to monopolise the functions of social governance, but to cooperate with other relevant actors in facilitating the expansion of opportunities for human flourishing, while fostering and protecting the integrity of the complex social infrastructure of flourishing.
How Social Complexity Supports Human Flourishing