James Otteson interview

James Otteson is Professor of Philosophy and Economics at Yeshiva University and Senior Fellow at the Fund for American Studies in Washington, DC. He is the author of the books Adam Smith, Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life, and Actual Ethics and the editor of several other works including Adam Smith: Selected Philosophical Writings. Otteson is interviewed by Jack Russell Weinstein discussing "On Liberty and Libertarianism".

See here for an audio of the interview.

Political freedom lies at the core of any democracy. Yet some people claim that even countries like America and England aren’t free enough. What does a free society look like and how much liberty is necessary for the moral life? What is the role of government, how big should it be, and what happens when individual interests clash? Join WHY?’s guest James Otteson as he examines these questions, talks about Adam Smith, the father of free-market theory, and discusses his own account of political morality with its roots in the “classical liberal tradition” (the political tradition that has led to everything from the American Tea Party to libertarians who argue for gun rights and drug legalization).