Aaron Ross Powell on Libertarianism and Buddhism

Joining me today is Aaron Ross Powell. Aaron is currently the director of Liberal Projects at the Institute for Humane Studies where he is the chief editor of Liberalism.org and host of the Liberalism.org podcast as well as Reimagining Liberty. I wanted to have Aaron on today to discuss two seemingly disparate intellectual interests of his: Buddhism and libertarianism. To many, these may seem like disparate and unrelated interests, or perhaps two intellectual traditions that are in deep tension with each other metaphysically. After all, libertarianism is often understood as relying on a strong conception of self-ownership, and Buddhism famously questions the very idea of selfhood to begin with. I wanted to sit down with Aaron to work through how he thinks of the relationship between Buddhist ethics and metaphysics, and the political project of human liberation, as well as the relationship between religious tolerance and liberal politics more generally.