March 2024: Frank H. Knight’s Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy

Please join us in March 2024 for a Virtual Reading Group with Rosolino Candela. 

 

Pre-registration is required, and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions. Readings must be acquired in advance. You may use promo code VRG2023 to receive 35% off your purchase at Liberty Fund Books.  Participants who successfully complete ALL sessions will be eligible to receive an Amazon e-gift certificate.

“The liberal faith is that progress, improvement, will be achieved through freedom – in contrast on the one hand with change directed by an authority with arbitrary power, and on the other with change made at random or in response to any thoughtless impulse.”

~ Frank H. Knight, Intelligence and Democratic Action (1960, p. 14).

The main objective of this seminar is twofold. First, you will be introduced to a selection of classic articles written by Frank H. Knight, one of the foremost economic theorists and social philosophers of the twentieth 20th century. His influence as the founder of what is known today as the Chicago School of Economics, particularly of the pre-WWII “Old Chicago School” along with Jacob Viner and Henry Simons, can be found through his impact on his students at the University of Chicago, such as James Buchanan, Milton Friedman and George Stigler, but also to a broader audience of economists through his seminal book, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit (1921). Secondly, we will learn about Knight’s contributions more broadly to the study of methodology, political economy and the institutional arrangements necessary for liberty and human flourishing from selected readings in Knight’s Freedom and Reform.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 12:30-1:30 pm EST

Readings:

Knight, Frank H. ([1929] 1982). “Freedom as Fact and Criterion.” in Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 3–23.

Thursday, March 14, 2024 12:30-1:30 pm EST

Readings:

Knight, Frank H. ([1939] 1982). “Ethics and Economic Reform” (Section I). in Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 55–90.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 12:30-1:30 pm EST

Readings:

Knight, Frank H. ([1939] 1982). “Ethics and Economic Reform ” (Sections II & III). in Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 90–153.

Thursday, March 21, 2024 12:00-1:00 pm EST

Readings:

Knight, Frank H. ([1941] 1982). “The Meaning of Democracy: Its Politico-Economic Structure and Ideals.” in Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 219–243.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 12:30-1:30 pm EST

Readings:

Knight, Frank H. ([1942] 1982). “Fact and Value in Social Science.” in Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 268–292.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 12:30-1:30 pm EST

Readings:

Knight, Frank H. ([1946] 1982). “The Sickness of Liberal Society.” in Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 440–478.