S3:E2: Jonathan Rauch | Discussing the Constitution of Knowledge

America’s free and self-governed society was founded on a written constitution, but as Jonathan Rauch argues – following James Madison – the United States relies on an “unwritten constitution,” a body of norms, customs, and traditions, the habits of a self-governing people. For Rauch, a liberal democratic society depends also on the common dedication to pursuing knowledge through free speech, as well as the discipline of searching for and testing facts through the promotion of viewpoint diversity and the rigorous exchange of ideas. It is only in this way that knowledge and truth will prevail over cancel culture and the purveyors of outrage.