January 6, 2026

Episode #5 w/ Otto Lehto: Evolutionary Liberalism: Nature, Justice, and Social Change

Today, Mateus and João start a new series within Synesis, where young scholars may share their research. We welcome Otto Lehto, a Research Fellow at NYU Center for Bioethics & Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU School of Law's Classical Liberal Institute. Through four articles ("Power to the Powerless: Evolutionary Liberalism and Social Emancipation"; "Evolution, Complexity and Intelligence: The Methodological Foundations of Evolutionary Liberalism"; "When Less is More: In Defence of Narrow, Humean Justice"; and "Foucault, Neoliberalism and Basic Income"), Otto reassesses the legacy of thinkers like David Hume, Herbert Spencer, Henry George, and F.A. Hayek to the future of a naturalist, Enlightenment-inspired conception of Evolutionary Liberalism, offering an intriguing and powerful defence of Classical Liberalism's main principles as a potentially radical inspiration for social change.

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