Conferences

Liberty Fund has held more than 4,000 conferences around the world based on the educational philosophy of our founder, Pierre Goodrich. These small, socratic-style conferences focus on themes of liberty and responsibility in economics, history, law, political thought, literature, philosophy, religion, the fine arts, and the natural sciences.

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Conversations Worth Having

Liberty Fund conferences reflect Pierre Goodrich’s conviction that education in a free society requires a dialogue among active minds freely engaging with the ideas that have shaped human civilization in general and the free society in particular. Our conversations are open ended; the purpose is neither to convey doctrine nor to reach consensus.

Mr. Goodrich did not believe that there was a formula or a model that could guarantee educational success, because he thought of education as “something that happens within an individual,” and that real education is dependent on personal desire and effort. Goodrich’s philosophy of education emphasized the centrality of reading important books and then engaging in a discussion of their meaning and significance. Goodrich thought it “more hopeful” than other traditional approaches.

A Format Designed to Engage

A Liberty Fund conference, usually held over a four-day period, is the culminating event in a three-month intellectual endeavor. Liberty Fund provides all participants at these invitation-only conferences with a set of readings that serve as the basis of the conference’s discussions. The first conversation Liberty Fund seeks to promote is between the reader and the assigned authors. Only after reading, reflecting, and considering an author is a participant ready to discuss the author’s work in a socratic setting. As Goodrich wrote, “By conversation the reasoning process and experience of each individual will be helped by other individuals, each of whom is the product of his own pressures, experiences, habits, and thoughts.”

Discussion That Deepens Your Thinking

Liberty Fund conferences offer a unique blend of structure and openness. Pierre Goodrich emphasized the importance of opportunities for spontaneous conversation: “sufficient time for discussion, formal and informal, should be allowed in an interval between the formal sessions.” Formal sessions are moderated by discussion leaders who “should confine themselves to a minimum activity of policing the discussion so that as much participation as possible may occur.” Goodrich’s socratic approach presumes the radical equality of all participants. “Lecturing should be taboo either by the examiners or by individuals. It is the examiner’s right to interrupt the lecturer. It is the socratic peer’s right to become the examiner of the socratic examiner if the examiner fails in his duty not to lecture.” Given the diverse backgrounds of participants, discussions can sometimes move in unanticipated directions, and at times allow experts to learn things from comparative novices. This process challenges the notion that any individual should be considered the final authority on a topic under discussion.

CONFERENCE TOPICS

Liberty Fund conference topics align with the areas of inquiry described by our organization’s founder. They include Economics, Education, Fine Arts, History, Law, Literature, Natural Science/Environment, Political Theory, and Theology/Philosophy.

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Global Reach

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Co-Sponsored Conference Program

In 2004, Liberty Fund began partnering with other organizations to expand our discussions to their networks. Through these partnerships, over 1,000 co-sponsored conferences have been held in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe.

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I have attended many Liberty Fund conferences and meetings that included the writings of Adam Smith... Without this Liberty Fund education and experience, I could not have written with Bart Wilson our book Humanomics. The same acknowledgement applies to my current work with Sabiou Inoua in our program on the rehabilitation of classical economics.

Vernon Smith

Nobel Laureate, Chapman University

An opportunity to read something of enduring interest and exchange thoughts with others bringing diverse perspectives to an open-minded discussion: who would believe something like Liberty Fund conferences could be possible?! These gatherings have enriched my teaching and writing, introducing me to new books and ideas, leading me to rethink familiar ones in a fresh light, and initiating through dialogue friendships that have grown over the years.

Ronna Burger

Professor of Philosophy and Economics, Tulane University

In a sense, the conferences embody a fundamental principle of equality: we are all here to learn from each other and exchange thoughts with each other—not to confront, not to impose—but to keep an open and critical disposition, and not be afraid to revise premises or conclusions.

Roberto Salinas-León

Executive Director, Center for Latin America, Atlas Network

Liberty Fund hosts conferences that reflect what academia should be. Scholars from different backgrounds and different areas of expertise gather for a long weekend to discuss important books, with no agenda other than an engaged meeting of minds about ideas that matter.

James Otteson

Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame