Hoover at Stanford’s Peter Berkowitz on Reclaiming Liberal Education in America

In this episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Prof. Albert Cheng of The Ohio State University and Pioneer Senior Fellow Steven Wilson, speak with Dr. Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of Reclaiming Liberal Education in America. Berkowitz reflects on the education that led him from Swarthmore College to the study of philosophy, political science, and law. He explains the ancient Greek meaning of “know thyself” and how Socratic inquiry seeks to understand universal questions about human nature, virtue, justice, and the good life. He distinguishes liberal education from a relativistic one, arguing that students should learn to question authority while cultivating moral virtues and respect for the law. Drawing on the examples of Frederick Douglass and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he discusses how Americans can pursue civic reforms through the nation’s Founding principles and upholding constitutionalism. Finally, Dr. Berkowitz reads a passage from his book Reclaiming Liberal Education in America.