Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2022.2085978
R. Hancock
Abstract A central theme of Peter Lawler’s thought, and of his interpretation of Tocqueville in particular, is the tension between the classical, aristocratic idea of excellence and that of greatness understood as a kind of sublime anxiety, a restlessness that may characterize the democratic masses. His eloquent illustration of this connection is a permanent contribution, not only to Tocqueville studies, but to the task of political philosophy in the late modern world. To be sure, Lawler also brings to light the aristocratic, Aristotelian dimension of greatness in Tocqueville. Moreover, what I call Pascal’s residual Platonism qualifies the notion of restlessness as the privileged expression of greatness. Still, I will here ask, employing a comparison between Pascal and Leo Strauss on the problem of parts and the whole, whether Lawler’s emphasis on the Pascalian Christian dimension of modern democratic existence must not be balanced with an understanding of the dependence of liberal democracies on a more traditional and aristocratic conception of greatness and virtue.
{"title":"Restless Virtue: Greatness in Lawler, Tocqueville, Pascal","authors":"R. Hancock","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2022.2085978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2022.2085978","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A central theme of Peter Lawler’s thought, and of his interpretation of Tocqueville in particular, is the tension between the classical, aristocratic idea of excellence and that of greatness understood as a kind of sublime anxiety, a restlessness that may characterize the democratic masses. His eloquent illustration of this connection is a permanent contribution, not only to Tocqueville studies, but to the task of political philosophy in the late modern world. To be sure, Lawler also brings to light the aristocratic, Aristotelian dimension of greatness in Tocqueville. Moreover, what I call Pascal’s residual Platonism qualifies the notion of restlessness as the privileged expression of greatness. Still, I will here ask, employing a comparison between Pascal and Leo Strauss on the problem of parts and the whole, whether Lawler’s emphasis on the Pascalian Christian dimension of modern democratic existence must not be balanced with an understanding of the dependence of liberal democracies on a more traditional and aristocratic conception of greatness and virtue.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"123 - 132"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47264484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-25DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2022.2052702
Carl Eric Scott
{"title":"Glaucon’s Fate: History, Myth, and Character in Plato’s Republic","authors":"Carl Eric Scott","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2022.2052702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2022.2052702","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"118 - 120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42242856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-11DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2022.2038991
Erik S. Root
Abstract State and Local government classes ignore the most important element of what influences citizens in their community: architectural design. Most of the practical considerations on the state and local level deal with planning what our surroundings look like in absence of any real consideration of beauty. However, the beautiful is complementary to our human nature. Our buildings no matter if they are in the city or the country, are reflective of our character, and in turn, shape our character. They call us either to lofty ideals, or reveal our deficiencies.
{"title":"Considering Beauty in State & Local Government","authors":"Erik S. Root","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2022.2038991","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2022.2038991","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract State and Local government classes ignore the most important element of what influences citizens in their community: architectural design. Most of the practical considerations on the state and local level deal with planning what our surroundings look like in absence of any real consideration of beauty. However, the beautiful is complementary to our human nature. Our buildings no matter if they are in the city or the country, are reflective of our character, and in turn, shape our character. They call us either to lofty ideals, or reveal our deficiencies.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"94 - 102"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46979200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-11DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2022.2041976
Eric C. Sands
Abstract It is widely known that Abraham Lincoln had an exceptional sense of humor. Entire books have been filled with his jokes and amusing stories. But Lincoln also used his humor to achieve political ends. For example, Lincoln used humor to ease the burdens of the executive position during a time of war. But Lincoln used his humor in another way – to draw attention to his rhetorical leadership. As this paper will show, Lincoln’s humor served as a kind of cueing device to draw the public’s attention to his leadership and statesmanship.
{"title":"The Universal Evergreen of Life: Lincoln’s Serious Use of Humor","authors":"Eric C. Sands","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2022.2041976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2022.2041976","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract It is widely known that Abraham Lincoln had an exceptional sense of humor. Entire books have been filled with his jokes and amusing stories. But Lincoln also used his humor to achieve political ends. For example, Lincoln used humor to ease the burdens of the executive position during a time of war. But Lincoln used his humor in another way – to draw attention to his rhetorical leadership. As this paper will show, Lincoln’s humor served as a kind of cueing device to draw the public’s attention to his leadership and statesmanship.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"103 - 112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44652105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-18DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2022.2042161
Matthew S. Brogdon
Abstract Taking seriously Tocqueville’s admonition that colonial experience is the proper “point of departure” for understanding the American regime and its constitution, this essay examines the development of free exercise protections and disestablishment of religion in the foundational laws of the American colonies. Like other studies of church-state relations, this examination largely bears out Madison’s pithy analysis in The Federalist. “In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other, in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects.” Growing religious diversity was a harbinger of religious liberty in early American constitutionalism. Yet the extension of free exercise protections and the curtailment of church establishments also depended on patterns of thought endemic to the theology of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Americans, shared principles that predated the proliferation of enlightenment liberalism in America. This narrative cautions against grounding religious liberty entirely in modern liberalism; colonial Americans did not adopt religious liberty as a result of secularization, but to protect their communities of faith from political threats. A conception of church-state relations that exudes hostility to faith is not likely to be durable. A robust religious liberty must thus be grounded in, or at minimum consonant with, the convictions the devoutly religious.
{"title":"Conscience, Consent, and a Multiplicity of Factions: Disestablishment and Free Exercise in Colonial American Constitutionalism","authors":"Matthew S. Brogdon","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2022.2042161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2022.2042161","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Taking seriously Tocqueville’s admonition that colonial experience is the proper “point of departure” for understanding the American regime and its constitution, this essay examines the development of free exercise protections and disestablishment of religion in the foundational laws of the American colonies. Like other studies of church-state relations, this examination largely bears out Madison’s pithy analysis in The Federalist. “In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other, in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects.” Growing religious diversity was a harbinger of religious liberty in early American constitutionalism. Yet the extension of free exercise protections and the curtailment of church establishments also depended on patterns of thought endemic to the theology of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Americans, shared principles that predated the proliferation of enlightenment liberalism in America. This narrative cautions against grounding religious liberty entirely in modern liberalism; colonial Americans did not adopt religious liberty as a result of secularization, but to protect their communities of faith from political threats. A conception of church-state relations that exudes hostility to faith is not likely to be durable. A robust religious liberty must thus be grounded in, or at minimum consonant with, the convictions the devoutly religious.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"53 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59590708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-16DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2022.2038989
Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo
Abstract In the Vices of the Political System of the United States, Madison writes “Where slavery exists the republican Theory becomes still more fallacious.” Statements from seemingly different periods of his intellectual life—the Constitutional Convention and the Party Essays in the Virginia Gazette—show us that Madison consistently viewed slavery as one of the cruelest vices committed by the majority, though a vice that he never overcame himself. Alongside those who characterize the founding fathers as men “who built better than they knew,” I argue that Madison approached the problem of slavery on terms presented by Montesquieu, that is, from a perspective of moderation and prudential judgment meant to delicately touch the relationship between law and mores. Though Madison never forcefully opposes slavery, I suggest throughout his career he follows the most read political writer among the men of the Founding Era. Through a careful reconstrual of Madison’s letters, his speeches at the Constitutional Convention, and later essays and writings about gradual emancipation, I show that this Founding Father, influenced by Montesquieu’s advice about indirect legislation for combating vice in Spirit of the Laws, made a sustained attempt to end American slavery through indirect legislative devices and public writings meant to change American mores to countenance emancipation.
{"title":"Madison as Reformer: The Montesquieuan Roots of Madison on Slavery","authors":"Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2022.2038989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2022.2038989","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the Vices of the Political System of the United States, Madison writes “Where slavery exists the republican Theory becomes still more fallacious.” Statements from seemingly different periods of his intellectual life—the Constitutional Convention and the Party Essays in the Virginia Gazette—show us that Madison consistently viewed slavery as one of the cruelest vices committed by the majority, though a vice that he never overcame himself. Alongside those who characterize the founding fathers as men “who built better than they knew,” I argue that Madison approached the problem of slavery on terms presented by Montesquieu, that is, from a perspective of moderation and prudential judgment meant to delicately touch the relationship between law and mores. Though Madison never forcefully opposes slavery, I suggest throughout his career he follows the most read political writer among the men of the Founding Era. Through a careful reconstrual of Madison’s letters, his speeches at the Constitutional Convention, and later essays and writings about gradual emancipation, I show that this Founding Father, influenced by Montesquieu’s advice about indirect legislation for combating vice in Spirit of the Laws, made a sustained attempt to end American slavery through indirect legislative devices and public writings meant to change American mores to countenance emancipation.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"67 - 80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48112421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-10DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2021.2022430
B. Frost
{"title":"The Case for Reason, Old Books, and Liberal Education.","authors":"B. Frost","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2021.2022430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2021.2022430","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"113 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48330688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-07DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2021.2019459
James Patterson
Abstract Recently, so-called Catholic “postliberal” conservatives have condemned the American regime as fundamentally liberal and, hence, parasitic on pre-liberal institutions. I argue that this view unduly conflates liberalism and republicanism and thereby confuses an ideology with the principles of the regime. American Catholic clergy have historically condemned liberalism in favor of a Catholic republicanism. This trend began with the political thought of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Bishop John Carroll who advocated for republican government in conjunction with “conciliarism” in the Church. Archbishop “Dagger” John Hughes of New York condemned “nothingarianism,” an early form of liberalism, while also arguing that Irish minorities were capable of republican self-rule during the School Controversy of 1840-43. Later, during the 1880 s and 1890 s, Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul, Minnesota, condemned liberalism, but also provided an alternative vision of post-Civil War racial reconciliation and of Catholic patriotism. Even as he disparaged liberalism, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen rescued the “Americanism” condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1899 to argue against totalitarian states of the twentieth century, while, at the same time, Fr. John Courtney Murray, no liberal, sought a religious truce in America in favor of common political action in areas of agreement. In short, these clergy opposed liberalism, but they couched their opposition in terms of support of the American Republic, often arguing that the Catholic Church, especially in parochial schooling, provided the best foundation for good government. However, the recent decline of hierarchical support of Catholic republicanism has led to the present disillusionment of American Catholics, who are at risk of turning to reactionary politics to their own peril.
{"title":"Catholic Republicanism in America","authors":"James Patterson","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2021.2019459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2021.2019459","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Recently, so-called Catholic “postliberal” conservatives have condemned the American regime as fundamentally liberal and, hence, parasitic on pre-liberal institutions. I argue that this view unduly conflates liberalism and republicanism and thereby confuses an ideology with the principles of the regime. American Catholic clergy have historically condemned liberalism in favor of a Catholic republicanism. This trend began with the political thought of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Bishop John Carroll who advocated for republican government in conjunction with “conciliarism” in the Church. Archbishop “Dagger” John Hughes of New York condemned “nothingarianism,” an early form of liberalism, while also arguing that Irish minorities were capable of republican self-rule during the School Controversy of 1840-43. Later, during the 1880 s and 1890 s, Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul, Minnesota, condemned liberalism, but also provided an alternative vision of post-Civil War racial reconciliation and of Catholic patriotism. Even as he disparaged liberalism, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen rescued the “Americanism” condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1899 to argue against totalitarian states of the twentieth century, while, at the same time, Fr. John Courtney Murray, no liberal, sought a religious truce in America in favor of common political action in areas of agreement. In short, these clergy opposed liberalism, but they couched their opposition in terms of support of the American Republic, often arguing that the Catholic Church, especially in parochial schooling, provided the best foundation for good government. However, the recent decline of hierarchical support of Catholic republicanism has led to the present disillusionment of American Catholics, who are at risk of turning to reactionary politics to their own peril.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"81 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43995571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-02DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2021.1997529
Philip D. Bunn
Abstract The relationship between the thought of Albert Camus and Simone Weil has been partially explored by scholars since their deaths. However, current scholarship does not fully explain the influence Weil’s life and work had on Camus’ esthetics, a full treatment of which is necessary to truly understand the significance of Camus’ adoption of the idea of the rebel as artist. Camus’ thought progresses significantly from his early esthetics of the will in his Essay on Music, affirming art as fundamentally an egoistic act, to a later esthetics of transcendence, affirming the selflessness of artistic rebellion. This paper argues that Camus’ development both mirrors Weil’s own philosophical development and corresponds to Camus’ exposure to and assimilation of Weil’s thought on decreation, beauty, and the transcendent. By establishing that Camus’ development in his esthetic and political theories corresponds to his exposure to and praise of Weil, I argue that Weil’s influence on Camus explains his later turn away from Nietzsche and to the affirmation of human nature, beauty in the world, and selfless rebellion and creation.
{"title":"Transcendent Rebellion: The Influence of Simone Weil on Albert Camus’ Esthetics","authors":"Philip D. Bunn","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2021.1997529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2021.1997529","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The relationship between the thought of Albert Camus and Simone Weil has been partially explored by scholars since their deaths. However, current scholarship does not fully explain the influence Weil’s life and work had on Camus’ esthetics, a full treatment of which is necessary to truly understand the significance of Camus’ adoption of the idea of the rebel as artist. Camus’ thought progresses significantly from his early esthetics of the will in his Essay on Music, affirming art as fundamentally an egoistic act, to a later esthetics of transcendence, affirming the selflessness of artistic rebellion. This paper argues that Camus’ development both mirrors Weil’s own philosophical development and corresponds to Camus’ exposure to and assimilation of Weil’s thought on decreation, beauty, and the transcendent. By establishing that Camus’ development in his esthetic and political theories corresponds to his exposure to and praise of Weil, I argue that Weil’s influence on Camus explains his later turn away from Nietzsche and to the affirmation of human nature, beauty in the world, and selfless rebellion and creation.","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"35 - 43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41422610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-25DOI: 10.1080/10457097.2021.1993700
Linus Recht
Abstract Although Nietzsche writes that Beyond Good and Evil is “in all essentials a critique of modernity,” surprisingly, the secondary literature typically slips past giving a precise characterization of this central concept in that work. In this paper I show that tracking Nietzsche’s use of the term "modern" in the work shows that Nietzsche’s “modernity” is: (I) a structure of ideas or values, (II) a psychic structure, (III) a social structure or a politics, and (IV), at the highest level a world; and that uncovering the core or substance of the critique demands careful attention to each of these four themes in light of the multiple addressees to and for whom Nietzsche writes in Beyond Good and Evil, given that he describes the work as both a "Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future" and "a school for the gentilhomme."
{"title":"Nietzsche’s Fourfold Critique of Modernity in Beyond Good and Evil","authors":"Linus Recht","doi":"10.1080/10457097.2021.1993700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2021.1993700","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although Nietzsche writes that Beyond Good and Evil is “in all essentials a critique of modernity,” surprisingly, the secondary literature typically slips past giving a precise characterization of this central concept in that work. In this paper I show that tracking Nietzsche’s use of the term \"modern\" in the work shows that Nietzsche’s “modernity” is: (I) a structure of ideas or values, (II) a psychic structure, (III) a social structure or a politics, and (IV), at the highest level a world; and that uncovering the core or substance of the critique demands careful attention to each of these four themes in light of the multiple addressees to and for whom Nietzsche writes in Beyond Good and Evil, given that he describes the work as both a \"Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future\" and \"a school for the gentilhomme.\"","PeriodicalId":55874,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Political Science","volume":"51 1","pages":"24 - 34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47864897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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