Books in the Political Theory for Today series

This volume explores the place of aristocratic virtues and values in the modern democratic world. Essays examine aristocratic priorities and interpretations of historic and contemporary aristocratic assemblies as well as critiques of liberal or bourgeois virtues, democratic equality, and democratic institutions.

This book compares and contrasts the ideas of some of the leading twentieth-century critics of rationalism: Gadamer, Hayek, Kolnai, MacIntyre, Oakeshott, Polanyi, Ryle, Voegelin, and Wittgenstein. This book provides important insights into this major intellectual trend of the past century.

Recently, in the past thirty years, there has been an upsurge in serious treatment of Platonic mythoi, which were once thought to be only literary decoration and/or the simplistic presentation of philosophic conclusions for the demos (dummies in effect). Nevertheless, the dominant tendency in the exegesis of Platonic mythoi still is to subordinate them to philosophic logos (reason) and not to recognize that such mythoi are philosophic in themselves in the broad sense of ';the love of wisdom'. There is something conversional about Plato's philosophic mythos, reformulating and superseding traditional Greek mythos and then charting the drama of the human soul from Socratic aporia, up and out of the cave, and into the beyond, the Idea of the Good. The late Professor Eric Voegelin understood this existential drama, and his exegesis of Platonic mythos, from engendering pathos to symbols, is revelatory to say the least. My understanding is that logos (reason) is a fundamental and necessary check on mythos, but logos and mythos are complementary via medias; neither are dispensable nor reducible, one to the other. Also crucial to my study of Platonic mythoi is the ';analogy of being,' that Voegelin only touches on, but Erich Przywara explores and develops. The relationship between the human and the divine is analogical (likenesses but also significant unlikenesses), and Plato certainly explored the play of opposites and affinities covering the difficult philosophical problems of becoming and being and the temporal and the eternal. Most philosophic commentators on Plato ignore the suffusive presence of the divine in Plato's love of wisdom. Perhaps only Platonic mythos at its best offers the philosophic imagination the vision of transcendence.

America, it is often argued, emerged from the Enlightenment. It follows that the prevailing elements of politics in the United States are echoes of struggles among what is here referred to as the moderate Enlightenment, the conservative Enlightenment, and the radical Enlightenment. These lead to conflicting political doctrines which variously address the fundamental questions of who should rule, and why, and how. The outcome is a confusing melange of a tri-partite civil war among those who claim the Enlightenment as their own.This is accompanied by a long history of resistance, to the Enlightenment itself, a phenomenon which leads to deeper concerns. Sometimes referred to as the Counter-Enlightenment, this has been largely expressed by the Romantic contentions of an authoritarian nationalism. Indeed, its most dramatic manifestations have been realized in fascism and Nazism. In this manner, they constitute a step back into the historical mist, comprising a major attack on both reason and empiricism as the foundation of a scientific approach.Out of this combination of limitation and possibility emanate the essential power configurations of the epoch, yielding policies that are often perceived to be ';democratic,' either as threat or achievement. Accordingly, the book explores the actual substance of the democratic argument. On this basis, it contends that a progressive position necessitates a search for the material foundation of a more egalitarian pluralism as the only rational surrogate for majorities within a nation of enormous size, population, and the complexities of concentration that are beyond the reach of democracy in any literal sense.This work is rooted in one of the major traditions that emerged from the Western world of the late eighteenth century. Thus it is informed by the doctrinal contentions of people like Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. As such, it largely opposes a tradition that flows from the writings of Adam Smith, John Adams, and James Madison, and even more so to that associated with Edmund Burke, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall. Its focus is on how these ideas play out in a world wherein a generic fascism is also a major theme always looming

The authors in this volume demonstrate that Voegelin's erudition on topics such as revolutionary change, ideological fervor, industrialization, globalism, and the place for reason and how it may be cultivated in complex time's remains as meaningful today as it was in the 1950s.

This book examines key twentieth-century philosophers, theologians, and social scientists who began their careers with commitments to the political left only later to reappraise or reject those commitments due to changes in the culture, economics, and politics.

In this critical history of modern philosophy, Cristaudo develops the argument put forward by Thomas Reid that modern philosophy has generally continued along the 'way of ideas' to its own detriment. Its ever-shifting dominant ideas contribute to capturing and imprisoning rather than expands our thinking.

This collection of essays examines the efforts of philosophers, artists, caretakers, and-perhaps most importantly-teachers to establish a sense of community and interpersonal responsibility in the postmodern world.

This book examines key twentieth-century philosophers, theologians, and social scientists who began their careers with commitments to the political left only later to reappraise or reject those commitments due to changes in the culture, economics, and politics.

This volume examines the cosmopolitanism ideal from ancient to contemporary times. It grapples with the question: Is there still relevance today for the idea of the "citizen of the world" that transcends national borders in the aftermath of the Brexit Referendum result and election of Donald Trump in 2016?

This collection of essays discusses the concepts of citizenship and civic leadership in light of contemporary challenges to American democracy. The authors invite further reflection on the features of citizenship and civic leadership under the American Constitution, and offer various suggestions about how to revitalize citizenship and civic leaders

The Spartan Drama of Plato's Laws is the first interpretation of the Laws to give sustained consideration to Megillos, the only character from Sparta that Plato created. Eli Friedland shows the profound importance of character to the Laws, and the rich drama of Plato's longest, and supposedly driest, work.

Willmoore Kendall was a man against the world, a maverick, an iconoclast. His thoughts were profound, his countless enemies powerful, his personal life full of drama. Heaven Can Indeed Fall is the first full-length biography of Kendall and integrates the man with the teacher, thinker, and cold warrior. Once a Marxist, Kendall became a fearsome foe of global communism. He never apologized for supporting Joseph McCarthy. As the co-founder of National Review he helped turn the word liberal into an insult. A stormy petrel, Kendall was a man ';who never lost an argument or kept a friend.' Yet he was one of the most effective and sensitive teachers of his age. His ideas shaped Cold War practices of intelligence analysis and psychological warfare. As an academic he became the premier American theorist for conservative populism. The recent reemergence of populist ideas among American conservatives makes understanding Kendall ever more imperative. This book shows how a child prodigy and bucolic boy scout became an ambitious intelligence analyst, razor-tongued polemicist and profound student of American politics. By knowing Kendall one can better understand Cold War America, and contemporary America as well.