Monthly Archives: June 2016

“In Defense of Liberal Democracy”: The Leitmotif of my Career

 

On May 30, 2016, about a year and half after I retired, an event was held in Calgary to celebrate my  work. That so many friends thought I merited this honour surprised and moved me. At the end of the day I tried, inadequately, to express my gratitude. In those concluding remarks, I also attempted a brief summary — reproduced below — of my academic preoccupation.


I want especially to thank Peter Russell for coming today, and for taking us all the way back to the beginning, to my PhD dissertation, In Defense of Liberal Democracy — which is also how I have entitled these concluding remarks. When Peter says he was more my student than my doctoral supervisor, he sells himself short. He taught me a lot then, and has continued to be a valued teacher and mentor ever since. He taught me especially — and certainly through his own character — the meaning of reasoned and reasonable disagreement. He has, in my eyes, always modelled the essential virtues of a liberal democrat.

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