Starting in 2011 Students For Liberty partnered with the Liberty Fund Inc. to host a new project for students with a passion for developing their intellectual understanding of liberty – The Students For Liberty & Liberty Fund Symposia: Exploring the Foundations of a Free Society.
Founded in 1960 by Indianapolis businessman and lawyer Pierre F. Goodrich, The Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Their logo, the Amagi, is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom”.
We successfully hosted 3 co-sponsored symposia in 2011-2012 and are excited to announce that we will be holding 3 more in 2012-2013. These three-day events are built around a Socratic discussion of the topic between fifteen student participants and an academic discussion leader. Over the past fifty years scores of aspiring intellectuals have attended Liberty Fund events to discuss and debate the ideas of liberty with their brightest peers.
Application to these events is very competitive. The ideal candidate is eager to contribute to a lively intellectual discussion on the topic at hand. Each attendee will be required to complete a set of readings leading up to the symposium (readings provided by SFL). Participation in the entire symposium is mandatory, so do not apply unless you can attend all sessions.
Housing, meals, and materials will be provided by SFL. Transportation to and from the conference is the responsibility of the participant.
The Institutions of Liberty
August 2-4, 2013 – Arlington, VA
Description: This conference seeks to address the relationship between freedom, markets, and culture in both a narrow and broad sense. While competitive markets lead to wealthier societies with superior opportunities for individuals to employ their talents and labor, questions remain for many regarding the proper cultural and moral underpinnings of markets. Criticisms are frequently leveled against markets that they undermine familial and cultural stability by promotion of a ubiquitous individualism unmoored from any tradition or larger social order. One focus of this conference will be to evaluate these criticisms through an examination of the basis and operation of free markets and the factors (moral, cultural, religious, or otherwise) that are necessary to sustain them.
Another key aspect of this conference will be to evaluate (through several readings by Friedrich Hayek) the proposition that free markets are not derivative of a larger political, social, legal, and cultural order, but that they act as pillars of a free society. Participants will thus take up the claim that, far from needing necessary cultural supports, markets are self-generating institutions that, if not preyed upon by government, are capable of producing enormous opportunities for individual development, relative peace, and overall prosperity. Scroll to the bottom of this page to apply.
- Start Date/Time: Friday, August 2 at 5:00pm Eastern Time
- End Date/Time: Sunday, August 4 at 1:30pm Eastern Time
- Location: Arlington, VA
- Application Deadline: Friday, June 14
Participants will receive free hard copies of these books:
- The Wealth of Nations volume I by Adam Smith
- The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
- Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
- The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek volume V
- A coursepacke of selected readings.