Givers, Doers, & Thinkers—A Podcast on Philanthropy and Civil Society · Jeremy Beer

Joshua Hochschild & the principle of subsidiarity

·56 min·1 clip

Jeremy Beard opens by introducing Joshua Hochschild as a philosopher who can make deep ideas understandable to ordinary listeners. The discussion starts with the meaning of subsidiarity. Hochschild connects that principle to the order of charity and to the responsibilities of different social institutions. The conversation then turns to contemporary technology and the way it unsettles attention and ordered life. Beard keeps asking what subsidiarity means in practice instead of letting it sit as a slogan. Schools are one example. Families are another. The interview also considers corporations and asks whether every free association is automatically a good one. Hochschild distinguishes voluntary associations from the more basic social forms that people do not choose in the same way. He argues that family life belongs among those primary or necessary associations. Beard follows that point closely. The two then test how civil society should understand these deeper relationships. Hochschild brings in Russell Hittinger as a key interpreter of Catholic social teaching. The conversation uses that framework to argue that higher-level institutions should serve families rather than replace them. Religious freedom comes into view too. The discussion suggests that governments may sometimes serve the church best by leaving it alone. By the end, the conversation has tied philosophy, civil society, education, religion, family, and technology into one moral frame.

As heard by us

A clear, patient case for subsidiarity and the institutions that quietly hold civil society together.

Joshua Hochschild treats subsidiarity as more than a slogan; it becomes a way to think about how civil society is arranged, what families and other primary associations are for, and where public authority ought to hold back.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Hear subsidiarity explained through families, schools, churches, and contemporary technology.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Givers, Doers, & Thinkers—A Podcast on Philanthropy and Civil Society