The political philosophy that changed the world | Jonathan Rauch: Full Interview

Rauch calls liberalism a social technology, the most important one humans have built, and the argument is about how it works rather than what it believes. Markets, democracy and what he calls liberal science share one design: decentralized, so no single mind has to know everything; depersonalized, so an experiment in Washington should replicate in Bengal no matter who runs it; and non-coercive, so disputes about reality get settled by persuasion instead of wars of religion. Then the backlash — social media and the decline of the old reality gatekeepers, “enragement is engagement” — and his case that a deliberately thin liberalism leaves the question of meaning to faith, and has been leaning on Christianity more than secular liberals admit. AI gets one line, as the newest accelerant of the knowledge machine; the frame is the reason to watch, since it is the one an AI that produces knowledge either joins or erodes.