Thomas Vernor Smith was the Maxwell professor of citizenship and philosophy at the University of Syracuse. He also served a term in the Illinois state senate and was a Congressman-at-large for the state for one session (1939-1941). He was also a well-known academic and a radio broadcaster whose work focused especially on the philosophy of democracy. His books included Abraham Lincoln and the Spiritual Life, Discipline for Democracy, The Legislative Way of Life, Atomic Power and the Moral Faith and, the published transcript of his Dunning Trust lectures, Man’s Three‐fold Will to Freedom. Shortly before he was Dunning Trust lecturer, he was a member of the United States Education Mission to Germany and Japan. He died in 1964.
Smith gave three lectures: “Freedom and the Will of Power,” “Freedom and the Will to Perfection,” and “Freedom and the Will to Piety.” He argued that the inner conditions of freedom were threefold: prowess, aspiration for excellence, and appreciation of the source of prowess. These inner qualities were the preconditions for maintaining one’s freedom in relation to others. Throughout the lectures, Smith discussed the central problem of humanity, which he defined as “who gets how much freedom and at what cost to them?” In the final lecture, Smith argued for the grace to accept the world as it is, to have the perspective to see both sides of problems. True freedom, he said, comes when we deflate our understanding of ourselves in the world, accepting the relative unimportance of our own position. Such a perspective can also eliminate feelings of anxiety and guilt, which are symptomatic of a failure to realize one’s limitations. The art of compromise, he concluded, is the grace to let other men be free as the price of being free ourselves. He discussed this especially in relation to politics and the creation of public policy.
Listen to an excerpt of Smith’s lecture or read the full transcript below.