Kant, Liberalism, and the Meaning of Life

In Kant, Liberalism, and the Meaning of Life, Jeffrey Church addresses the "meaning deficit" in contemporary liberal societies. Even though Western countries are wealthier now than ever, liberal governments nevertheless have become increasingly out of touch with the middle class and its moral needs for purpose and belonging. Instead, liberalism finds itself besieged by illiberal forms of populism, which supply sources of meaning contemporary individuals yearn for. In this book, Church argues that Kant's early work on anthropology can serve as the basis for a more meaningful liberalism, one that conceives of freedom and equality for all as a moral vocation of citizens and institutions to realize.