Transcript
BILL GALSTON: We are here in a double capacity because this is a first in a new Brookings book series entitled Governing Ideas, and the premise of the series is that there are important links among political processes, institutions, and ideas, the sorts of ideas often discussed under the rubrics of philosophy and even religion, that as you look at this triad of processes, institutions, and ideas, each of them to some extent reflects, shapes, and provides context for the others.
The topic of the book under discussion today may seem pretty far removed from the practice of politics, but I believe that this appearance is deceptive. Let me just cite some obvious facts. In the U.S. context, conservatives often accuse liberals of taking tolerance too far, abandoning standards of conduct and accepting just about anything. In other words, and some conservatives say this explicitly, liberals have become relativists and relativism is a danger to the Republic.
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