Some of my favorite memories in life are from late-night debates in dorm rooms; from great conversations over lunch; or from those rare moments in the seminar room when a light suddenly went off in my head, ever-so-slightly altering my perception of the world.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how hard it is to cultivate this love of learning and conversation once you leave college. Life gets busy. Your close friends move away. Some other task always feels more pressing.
So, a few months ago, I had an idea: What if we build on the wonderful community that is growing around this Substack to create a space for this kind of intellectual exploration? A new way for all of us, from student to CEO, to read important texts and reflect on pressing questions together?
I’m calling it “The Seminar.”
Here’s the basics. Once a week, for four weeks, we meet for two-and-a-half hours to discuss exciting texts that grapple with an important topic. In this way, we explore some of the deepest and most urgent questions facing the world together. These won’t be impersonal lectures designed to be watched passively; rather, a small group of us will meet live, under my guidance but with everyone’s active participation.
For the first iteration, I decided to focus on one of the big debates of the moment: Liberalism and Its Critics: From Mill to the MAGA Movement.
Principles like free speech, due process, and individual freedom have long stood at the core of our democracies. But citizens are clearly dissatisfied with many fundamental aspects of our societies. And increasingly, a new cohort of post-liberal thinkers is making the case that we should abandon those principles.
Do they have a point? And, if not, how can we reinvigorate liberalism for the 21st century? We’ll be asking these questions by reading a mix of classic texts, like John Stuart Mill and John Rawls, and more recent thinkers.
There will be readings for each session, and we’ll proceed on the assumption that everyone has actually engaged with them, so we can have a high quality of discussion. But the readings will at most be 100 pages per week, and usually less than that.
I want to make this experience as accessible as possible. The standard rate for joining this live, small-group semianr is $500. If that’s beyond your budget, you can choose to pay the needs-based rate of $250. Don’t worry: I’m not going to ask you to share any financial information—please just select the rate that is appropriate given your financial situation.
The first seminar will run on Wednesdays in January (1/8, 1/15, /1/22, 1/29) from 6-8.30pm EST, on Zoom. The bad news is that this group filled up in less than twelve hours. (You can add yourself to the waitlist here). The good news is that I wanted to avoid turning people away, so I created a second group, which will meet on the same dates, from 12pm-2pm Eastern; you can sign up here.
Would you like to join the first cohort? Or, especially with the holidays coming up, gift participation in The Seminar to someone who would?
If that’s still beyond reach, we offer a limited number of full scholarships. Please fill out this form to be considered.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, just drop me a line by responding to this email.
See you soon in class,
Yascha