The Spirit of Liberal Freedom and the Mission of the University

When: Thursday, December 3, 2026
Time: 11:00 am–12:15 pm
Where: British & Irish Studies Room (Norlin Library M549, 5th Floor)
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About the Lecture

In this talk, Dr. Pittz develops a novel conception of spiritual freedom. Drawing from Nietzsche and his figure of the “free spirit,” as well as from thinkers as varied as Mill, Emerson, Goethe, Hesse, C. S. Lewis, and Tocqueville, the talk examines a tradition of individual freedom best described as spiritual. Spiritual freedom is an often overlooked category of liberal freedom, and it provides a path to meaning without a return to communal or traditional life. Dr. Pittz argues for both the possibility and the desirability of a free-spirited life. Citizens who are “free spirits” deliver great benefits to liberal democracies, primarily by combatting dogmatism and fanaticism and the putative authority of public opinion. Part of the mission of any good university should be to cultivate the virtues of spiritual freedom, and the talk will conclude with a discussion of whether or not such cultivation is occurring on university campuses.

About the Speaker

Dr. Steven Pittz is Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual. He is also Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). He is a graduate of the UCCS Political Science Department (BA 2004) and returned to his alma mater after graduate school at the University of Texas (PhD 2014) and a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta. Steven’s research focuses primarily on political liberalism and current challenges to the liberal order, approached largely through the status of individualism and spiritual fulfillment in modern liberal societies. He also writes on other topics in political theory and international politics and economics. His first book, Recovering the Liberal Spirit: Nietzsche, Individuality and Spiritual Freedom, was published by SUNY Press in 2020. A second, with Joseph Postell, American Citizenship and Constitutionalism in Principle and Practice, was published by Oklahoma Press in 2022. He has also recently written on atomism (individualism), conspiracism in liberal democratic societies, and the ethics of creative destruction in entrepreneurship.