Author Meets Critics: Amy Gais’s "The Coerced Conscience”

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

“The Coerced Conscience” (Cambridge University Press, 2024) examines liberty of conscience, namely, the freedom to live one’s life in accordance with the dictates of conscience, especially in religion. While this freedom has long enjoyed esteem in American politics, it has come under renewed scrutiny in contemporary debates on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights, reproductive health and abortion, and immigration and religious asylum. Amy Gais’s book draws from the history of political thought—through an examination of Milton, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Bayle—to shed light on these pressing contemporary debates. The book argues that liberty of conscience remains a crucial freedom worth protecting, because safeguarding it prevents political, social, and psychological threats to freedom.

This author-meets-critics panel convenes a group of political theorists to discuss Gais’s core claims. The panel features comments from Joshua Cherniss (Georgetown), Julie Cooper (Tel Aviv University), and Gianna Englert (Southern Methodist University) with a reply from Amy Gais (Washington University St. Louis).

Sub Unit

• Division 1: Political Thought and Philosophy

Chair

• Yuna Blajer de la Garza Loyola University, Chicago

Presenters

• Joshua L. Cherniss Georgetown University

• Julie E. Cooper Tel Aviv University

• Gianna Englert Hamilton Center, University of Florida

• Amy Gais Washington University in St. Louis