The conflict between politics and antipolitics has replayed
throughout Western history and philosophical thought. From the
beginning, Plato's quest for absolute certainty led him to denounce
democracy, an anti-political position challenged by Aristotle. In
his wide-ranging narrative, Dick Howard puts this dilemma into
fresh perspective, proving our contemporary political problems are
not as unique as we think.
Howard begins with democracy in ancient Greece and the rise and
fall of republican politics in Rome. In the wake of Rome's
collapse, political thought searched for a new medium, and the
conflict between politics and antipolitics reemerged through the
contrasting theories of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. During
the Renaissance and Reformation, the emergence of the modern
individual again transformed the terrain of the political. Even so,
politics vs. antipolitics dominated the period, frustrating even
Machiavelli, who sought to reconceptualize the nature of political
thought. Hobbes and Locke, theorists of the social contract, then
reenacted the conflict, which Rousseau sought (in vain) to
overcome. Adam Smith and the growth of modern economic liberalism,
the radicalism of the French revolution, and the conservative
reaction of Edmund Burke subsequently marked the triumph of
antipolitics, while the American Revolution momentarily offered the
potential for a renewal of politics. Taken together, these
historical examples, viewed through the prism of philosophy, reveal
the roots of today's political climate and the trajectory of
battles yet to come.
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