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We Don't Eat Our Neighbors
Daniel J Mahoney; Illustrated by Daniel J Mahoney
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Dorothea Deprisco Wang; Illustrated by Daniel J Mahoney; Imagine That!
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This volume brings together leading thinkers who offer reflections
on the place of Western civilization in the academy, at a time when
there is indifference or even antipathy toward the study of the
West at most institutions of higher learning. Alternative
narratives-including multiculturalism, diversity, and
sustainability-have come to the fore in the stead of Western
civilization. The present volume is designed to explore the roots,
extent, and long-term consequences of this educational climate: How
and why did undergraduate education turn its back on what was once
an important component of its mission? To what extent has such
change affected the experience of undergraduates and the ability of
colleges to educate citizens of a constitutional republic? What are
the likely individual and social outcomes of such a shift in
educational priorities? The volume's theme is, and will continue to
be, the subject of national scholarly and media attention.
In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Daniel Mahoney presents a philosophical
perspective on the political condition of modern man through an
exegesis and analysis of Solzhenitsyn's work. Mahoney demonstrates
the tremendous, yet often unappreciated, impact of Solzhenitsyn's
writing on twentieth century thinking through an examination of the
writer's profoundly important critique of communist totalitarianism
in a judicious and original mix of western and Russian, Christian
and classical wisdom.
We are currently witnessing an increasingly influential
counterrevolution in political theory, evident in the dialectical
return to classical political science pioneered most prominently by
Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. In this context, the work of the
relatively unknown Aurel Kolnai is of great importance. Kolnai was
one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century to place the
restoration of common-sense evaluation and philosophical realism at
the center of his philosophical and political itinerary. In this
volume, Daniel J. Mahoney presents Kolnai's major writings in
political philosophy, writings that explore - in ways that are
diverse but complementary - Kolnai's critique of progressive or
egalitarian democracy. The title essay contains Kolnai's fullest
account of the limits of liberty understood as emancipation from
traditional, natural, or divine restraints. 'The Utopian Mind, ' a
pr, cis of Kolnai's critique of utopianism in a posthumous book of
the same title, appears here for the first time. 'Conservative and
Revolutionary Ethos, ' Kolnai's remarkable 1972 essay comparing
conservative and revolutionary approaches to political life,
appears for the first time in English translation. The volume also
includes a critically sympathetic evaluation of Michael Oakeshott's
Rationalism in Politics and an incisive criticism of Jacques
Maritain's efforts to synthesize Christian orthodoxy and
progressive politics. Privilege and Liberty and Other Essays in
Political Philosophy is a searching critique of political
utopianism, as well as a pathbreaking articulation of conservative
constitutionalism as the true support for human liberty properly
understood. It is a major contribution to Christian and
conservative political reflection in our ti
In this edited collection, Peter Lawler presents a lucid and
comprehensive introduction to a diverse set of political issues
according to Tocqueville. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics
addresses a variety of modern political and social concerns, such
as the moral dimension of democracy, the theoretical challenges to
democracy in our time, the religious dimension of liberty, and the
meaning of work in contemporary American Life. Taking innovative
and unexpected approaches toward familiar topics, the essays
present engaging insights into a democratic society, and the
contributors include some of today's leading figures in political
philosophy. No other collection on Tocqueville addresses
contemporary American political issues in such a direct and
accessible fashion, making this book a valuable resource for the
study of political theory in America.
In this edited collection, Peter Lawler presents a lucid and
comprehensive introduction to a diverse set of political issues
according to Tocqueville. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics
addresses a variety of modern political and social concerns, such
as the moral dimension of democracy, the theoretical challenges to
democracy in our time, the religious dimension of liberty, and the
meaning of work in contemporary American Life. Taking innovative
and unexpected approaches toward familiar topics, the essays
present engaging insights into a democratic society, and the
contributors include some of today's leading figures in political
philosophy. No other collection on Tocqueville addresses
contemporary American political issues in such a direct and
accessible fashion, making this book a valuable resource for the
study of political theory in America.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is almost a forgotten man, a relic of the
Cold War, like some broken and discarded bit of the Berlin Wall. He
is also one of the most important writers of the 20th century, and
has had more direct influence on politics than any author since
Jean Jacques Rousseau. At a critical time after America's loss in
Vietnam, Solzhenitsyn stood as a towering moral force against a
policy of appeasement towards an evil adversary. In this new
edition of Assault on Ideology: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Political
Thought author James F. Pontuso showcases the titanic thought that
understood Marxism to be a vain and ultimately merciless effort to
fulfill the Enlightenment dream of fully conquering and exploiting
nature in order to establish a perfect and just society on earth.
Solzhenitsyn's claim was that Lenin, Stalin, and the Russian people
applied Marx's principles to the letter yielding horrific results.
Pontuso traces the causes of the horrific events of the Great
Terror beginning with Stalin's megalomania, back through the cruel
precedents laid down by Lenin, to the ideology established by Marx,
and ultimately to the philosophy begun in the Enlightenment.
Concentration camp survivor, former Marxist-Leninist and Lithuanian
patriot, Aleksandras Shtromas devoted his life to understanding
totalitarianism and political change. He was a remarkably prescient
thinker and is probably best known for his prediction of the fall
of the Soviet Union, forecast at a time when the mighty empire
seemed almost invincible. This posthumous collection of writings,
edited by Robert Faulkner and Daniel J. Mahoney, addresses some of
the topics that preoccupied Shtromas throughout his life, including
totalitarian regimes, postcommunist transitions, the fates of the
Baltic states, and the nature of political revolutions. Readers of
Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order: Closing the Door
on the Twentieth Century will encounter not just a learned and
impressive scholar, but also a great man who confronted monstrous
evils in his lifetime.
Concentration camp survivor, former Marxist-Leninist and Lithuanian
patriot, Aleksandras Shtromas devoted his life to understanding
totalitarianism and political change. He was a remarkably prescient
thinker and is probably best known for his prediction of the fall
of the Soviet Union, forecast at a time when the mighty empire
seemed almost invincible. This posthumous collection of writings,
edited by Robert Faulkner and Daniel J. Mahoney, addresses some of
the topics that preoccupied Shtromas throughout his life, including
totalitarian regimes, postcommunist transitions, the fates of the
Baltic states, and the nature of political revolutions. Readers of
Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order: Closing the Door
on the Twentieth Century will encounter not just a learned and
impressive scholar, but also a great man who confronted monstrous
evils in his lifetime.
In this book, distinguished French philosopher Pierre Manent
addresses a wide range of subjects, including the Machiavellian
origins of modernity, Tocqueville's analysis of democracy, the
political role of Christianity, the nature of totalitarianism, and
the future of the nation-state. As a whole, the book constitutes a
meditation on the nature of modern freedom and the permanent
discontents which accompany it. Manent is particularly concerned
with the effects of modern democracy on the maintenance and
sustenance of substantial human ties. Modern Liberty and its
Discontents is both an important contribution to an understanding
of modern society, and a significant contribution to political
philosophy in its own right.
This is a critical introduction to Raymond Aron's conception of
political science, based on a careful study of one of his central
statements, "The Dawn of Universal History", with collateral
reference to most of his other major works, and with a clear
account of his unfolding thought. Mahoney discusses Aron's
relationship to such political and social thinkers as Aristotle,
Tocqueville, Marx, Strauss and Von Hayek. He shows how Aron
represented in a lively and vigorous way a tradition of political
prudence increasingly under theoretical and practical assault.
Mahoney argues that Aron's notion of political science is superior
to today's reigning social science in scope, rigour and
availability to practical political leaders and citizens.
“Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn delineates his idyllic time in rural
Vermont, where he had the freedom to work, spend time with his
family, and wage a war of ideas against the Soviet Union and other
detractors from afar. At his quiet retreat . . . the Nobel laureate
found . . . ‘a happiness in free and uninterrupted work.’”
—Kirkus Reviews This compelling account concludes Nobel
Prize–winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s literary memoirs of his
years in the West after his forced exile from the USSR following
the publication of The Gulag Archipelago. The book reflects both
the pain of separation from his Russian homeland and the chasm of
miscomprehension between him and Western opinion makers. In Between
Two Millstones, Solzhenitsyn likens his position to that of a grain
that becomes lodged between two massive stones, each grinding
away—the Soviet Communist power with its propaganda machine on
the one hand and the Western establishment with its mainstream
media on the other. Book 2 picks up the story of Solzhenitsyn’s
remarkable life after the raucous publicity over his 1978 Harvard
Address has died down. The author parries attacks from the Soviet
state (and its many fellow-travelers in the Western press) as well
as from recent émigrés who, according to Solzhenitsyn, defame
Russian culture, history, and religion. He shares his unvarnished
view of several infamous episodes, such as a sabotaged meeting with
Ronald Reagan, aborted Senate hearings regarding Radio Liberty, and
Gorbachev’s protracted refusal to allow The Gulag Archipelago to
be published back home. There is also a captivating chapter
detailing his trips to Japan, Taiwan, and Great Britain, including
meetings with Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charles and Princess
Diana. Meanwhile, the central themes of Book 1 course through this
volume, too—the immense artistic quandary of fashioning The Red
Wheel, staunch Western hostility to the historical and future
Russia (and how much can, or should, the author do about it), and
the challenges of raising his three sons in the language and spirit
of Russia while cut off from the homeland in a remote corner of
rural New England. The book concludes in 1994, as Solzhenitsyn bids
farewell to the West in a valedictory series of speeches and
meetings with world leaders, including John Paul II, and prepares
at last to return home with his beloved wife Natalia, full of
misgivings about what use he can be in the first chaotic years of
post-Communist Russia, but never wavering in his conviction that,
in the long run, his books would speak, influence, and convince.
This vibrant, faithful, and long-awaited first English translation
of Between Two Millstones, Book 2, will fascinate Solzhenitsyn's
many admirers, as well as those interested in twentieth-century
history, Russian history, and literature in general.
“Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn delineates his idyllic time in rural
Vermont, where he had the freedom to work, spend time with his
family, and wage a war of ideas against the Soviet Union and other
detractors from afar. At his quiet retreat . . . the Nobel laureate
found . . . ‘a happiness in free and uninterrupted work.’”
—Kirkus Reviews This compelling account concludes Nobel
Prize–winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s literary memoirs of his
years in the West after his forced exile from the USSR following
the publication of The Gulag Archipelago. The book reflects both
the pain of separation from his Russian homeland and the chasm of
miscomprehension between him and Western opinion makers. In Between
Two Millstones, Solzhenitsyn likens his position to that of a grain
that becomes lodged between two massive stones, each grinding
away—the Soviet Communist power with its propaganda machine on
the one hand and the Western establishment with its mainstream
media on the other. Book 2 picks up the story of Solzhenitsyn’s
remarkable life after the raucous publicity over his 1978 Harvard
Address has died down. The author parries attacks from the Soviet
state (and its many fellow-travelers in the Western press) as well
as from recent émigrés who, according to Solzhenitsyn, defame
Russian culture, history, and religion. He shares his unvarnished
view of several infamous episodes, such as a sabotaged meeting with
Ronald Reagan, aborted Senate hearings regarding Radio Liberty, and
Gorbachev’s protracted refusal to allow The Gulag Archipelago to
be published back home. There is also a captivating chapter
detailing his trips to Japan, Taiwan, and Great Britain, including
meetings with Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charles and Princess
Diana. Meanwhile, the central themes of Book 1 course through this
volume, too—the immense artistic quandary of fashioning The Red
Wheel, staunch Western hostility to the historical and future
Russia (and how much can, or should, the author do about it), and
the challenges of raising his three sons in the language and spirit
of Russia while cut off from the homeland in a remote corner of
rural New England. The book concludes in 1994, as Solzhenitsyn bids
farewell to the West in a valedictory series of speeches and
meetings with world leaders, including John Paul II, and prepares
at last to return home with his beloved wife Natalia, full of
misgivings about what use he can be in the first chaotic years of
post-Communist Russia, but never wavering in his conviction that,
in the long run, his books would speak, influence, and convince.
This vibrant, faithful, and long-awaited first English translation
of Between Two Millstones, Book 2, will fascinate Solzhenitsyn's
many admirers, as well as those interested in twentieth-century
history, Russian history, and literature in general.
In his newest book, Daniel J. Mahoney offers refreshing historical
antidotes to the displays of despotism in today's political arena.
"A brilliantly written and researched tribute to the pantheon of
classically trained and thinking men of action." -Victor Davis
Hanson In The Statesman as Thinker, Daniel J. Mahoney provides
thoughtful and elegant portraits of statesmen who struggled to
preserve freedom during times of crisis: Cicero using all the
powers of rhetoric to preserve republican liberty in Rome against
Caesar's encroaching autocracy; Burke defending ordered liberty
against Jacobin tyranny in revolutionary France; Tocqueville
defending liberty and human dignity against blind reaction,
democratic impatience, and revolutionary fanaticism; Lincoln
preserving the American republic and putting an end to chattel
slavery; Churchill defending liberty and law and opposing Nazi and
Communist despotism; de Gaulle defending the honor of France during
World War II; and Havel fighting Communism before 1989 and then
leading the Czech Republic with dignity and grace. Mahoney makes
sense of the mixture of magnanimity and moderation that defines the
statesman as thinker at his or her best. That admirable mixture of
greatness, courage, and moderation owes much to classical and
Christian wisdom and to the noble desire to protect the inheritance
of civilization against rapacious and destructive despotic regimes
and ideologies.
This first English translation of Pierre Manent’s profound and
strikingly original book La loi naturelle et les droits de
l’homme is a reflection on the central question of the Western
political tradition. In six chapters, developed from the
prestigious Étienne Gilson lectures at the Institut Catholique de
Paris, and in a related appendix, Manent contemplates the steady
displacement of the natural law by the modern conception of human
rights. He aims to restore the grammar of moral and political
action, and thus the possibility of an authentically political
order that is fully compatible with liberty. Manent boldly
confronts the prejudices and dogmas of those who have repudiated
the classical and Christian notion of “liberty under law” and
in the process shows how groundless many contemporary appeals to
human rights turn out to be. Manent denies that we can generate
obligations from a condition of what Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau
call the “state of nature,” where human beings are absolutely
free, with no obligations to others. In his view, our
ever-more-imperial affirmation of human rights needs to be
reintegrated into what he calls an “archic” understanding of
human and political existence, where law and obligation are
inherent in liberty and meaningful human action. Otherwise we are
bound to act thoughtlessly and in an increasingly arbitrary or
willful manner. Natural Law and Human Rights will engage students
and scholars of politics, philosophy, and religion, and will
captivate sophisticated readers who are interested in the question
of how we might reconfigure our knowledge of, and talk with one
another about, politics.
Russian Nobel prize-winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) is
widely acknowledged as one of the most important figures-and
perhaps the most important writer-of the last century. To celebrate
the centenary of his birth, the first English translation of his
memoir of the West, Between Two Millstones, Book 1, is being
published. Fast-paced, absorbing, and as compelling as the earlier
installments of his memoir The Oak and the Calf (1975), Between Two
Millstones begins on February 13, 1974, when Solzhenitsyn found
himself forcibly expelled to Frankfurt, West Germany, as a result
of the publication in the West of The Gulag Archipelago.
Solzhenitsyn moved to Zurich, Switzerland, for a time and was
considered the most famous man in the world, hounded by journalists
and reporters. During this period, he found himself untethered and
unable to work while he tried to acclimate to his new surroundings.
Between Two Millstones contains vivid descriptions of
Solzhenitsyn's journeys to various European countries and North
American locales, where he and his wife Natalia ("Alya") searched
for a location to settle their young family. There are fascinating
descriptions of one-on-one meetings with prominent individuals,
detailed accounts of public speeches such as the 1978 Harvard
University commencement, comments on his television appearances,
accounts of his struggles with unscrupulous publishers and agents
who mishandled the Western editions of his books, and the KGB
disinformation efforts to besmirch his name. There are also
passages on Solzhenitsyn's family and their property in Cavendish,
Vermont, whose forested hillsides and harsh winters evoked his
Russian homeland, and where he could finally work undisturbed on
his ten-volume dramatized history of the Russian Revolution, The
Red Wheel. Stories include the efforts made to assure a proper
education for the writer's three sons, their desire to return one
day to their home in Russia, and descriptions of his extraordinary
wife, editor, literary advisor, and director of the Russian Social
Fund, Alya, who successfully arranged, at great peril to herself
and to her family, to smuggle Solzhenitsyn's invaluable archive out
of the Soviet Union. Between Two Millstones is a literary event of
the first magnitude. The book dramatically reflects the pain of
Solzhenitsyn's separation from his Russian homeland and the chasm
of miscomprehension between him and Western society.
Russian Nobel prize-winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) is
widely acknowledged as one of the most important figures-and
perhaps the most important writer-of the last century. To celebrate
the centenary of his birth, the first English translation of his
memoir of the West, Between Two Millstones, Book 1, is being
published. Fast-paced, absorbing, and as compelling as the earlier
installments of his memoir The Oak and the Calf (1975), Between Two
Millstones begins on February 13, 1974, when Solzhenitsyn found
himself forcibly expelled to Frankfurt, West Germany, as a result
of the publication in the West of The Gulag Archipelago.
Solzhenitsyn moved to Zurich, Switzerland, for a time and was
considered the most famous man in the world, hounded by journalists
and reporters. During this period, he found himself untethered and
unable to work while he tried to acclimate to his new surroundings.
Between Two Millstones contains vivid descriptions of
Solzhenitsyn's journeys to various European countries and North
American locales, where he and his wife Natalia ("Alya") searched
for a location to settle their young family. There are fascinating
descriptions of one-on-one meetings with prominent individuals,
detailed accounts of public speeches such as the 1978 Harvard
University commencement, comments on his television appearances,
accounts of his struggles with unscrupulous publishers and agents
who mishandled the Western editions of his books, and the KGB
disinformation efforts to besmirch his name. There are also
passages on Solzhenitsyn's family and their property in Cavendish,
Vermont, whose forested hillsides and harsh winters evoked his
Russian homeland, and where he could finally work undisturbed on
his ten-volume dramatized history of the Russian Revolution, The
Red Wheel. Stories include the efforts made to assure a proper
education for the writer's three sons, their desire to return one
day to their home in Russia, and descriptions of his extraordinary
wife, editor, literary advisor, and director of the Russian Social
Fund, Alya, who successfully arranged, at great peril to herself
and to her family, to smuggle Solzhenitsyn's invaluable archive out
of the Soviet Union. Between Two Millstones is a literary event of
the first magnitude. The book dramatically reflects the pain of
Solzhenitsyn's separation from his Russian homeland and the chasm
of miscomprehension between him and Western society.
In Volume Two of Ernest Fortin: Collected Essays, Fortin deals with
the relationship between religion and civil society in a Christian
context: that of an essentially nonpolitical but by no means
entirely otherwordly religion, many of whose teachings were thought
to be fundamentally at odds with the duties of citizenship.
Sections focus upon Augustine and Aquinas, on Christianity and
politics; natural law, natural rights, and social justice; and Leo
Strauss and the revival of classical political philosophy. Fortin's
treatment of these and related themes betrays a keen awareness of
one of the significant intellectual events of our time: the
recovery of political philosophy as a legitimate academic
discipline.
This is the second of Raymond Aron's classic two-volume survey of
the sociological tradition - arguably the definitive work of its
kind. Aron explores the work of three figures who profoundly shaped
sociology as it entered the twentieth century: Emile Durkheim, who
continued Auguste Comte's quest for a science of society and a
scientific validation of morality; Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian
"neo-Machiavellian" who emphasized the oligarchic or elitist
character of all societies; and the German sociologist Max Weber,
who reflected critically on the prospects for human freedom in an
age marked by bureaucratization and rationalization. Aron presents
rich portraits of these three thinkers, drawing out the enduring
insights that remain in their work. At the same time he reflects
critically on Durkheim's project for a science of society, Pareto's
critique of humanitarianism, and Weber's tragic pessimism. Above
all the book is remarkable for demonstrating Aron's lifelong
indebtedness to and divergence from the thought of Max Weber, the
sociologist par excellence, in Aron's view. This Routledge Classics
edition includes an introduction by Daniel J. Mahoney and Brian C.
Anderson.
The great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) is
widely recognized as one of the most consequential human beings of
the twentieth century. Through his writings and moral witness, he
illumined the nature of totalitarianism and helped bring down an
'evil empire.' His courage and tenacity are acknowledged even by
his fiercest critics. Yet the world-class novelist, historian, and
philosopher (one uses the latter term in its capacious Russian
sense) has largely been eclipsed by a caricature that has
transformed a measured and self-critical patriot into a ferocious
nationalist, a partisan of local self-government into a
quasi-authoritarian, a man of faith and reason into a narrow-minded
defender of Orthodoxy. The caricature, widely dispensed in the
press, and too often taken for granted, gets in the way of a
thoughtful and humane confrontation with the "other" Solzhenitsyn,
the true Solzhenitsyn, who is a writer and thinker of the first
rank and whose spirited defense of liberty is never divorced from
moderation. It is to the recovery of this Solzhenitsyn that this
book is dedicated. This book above all explores philosophical,
political, and moral themes in Solzhenitsyn's two masterworks, The
Gulag Archipelago and The Red Wheel, as well as in his great
European novel In the First Circle. We see Solzhenitsyn as analyst
of revolution, defender of the moral law, phenomenologist of
ideological despotism, and advocate of "resisting evil with force."
Other chapters carefully explore Solzhenitsyn's conception of
patriotism, his dissection of ideological mendacity, and his
controversial, but thoughtful and humane discussion of the "Jewish
Question" in the Russian - and Soviet twentieth century. Some of
Solzhenitsyn's later writings, such as the "binary tales" that he
wrote in the 1990s, are subject to critically appreciative
analysis. And a long final chapter comments on Solzhenitsyn's July
2007 Der Spiegel interview, his last word to Russia and the West.
He is revealed to be a man of faith and freedom, a patriot but not
a nationalist, and a principled advocate of self-government for
Russia and the West. A final Appendix reproduces the beautiful
Introduction ("The Gift of Incarnation") that the author's widow,
Natalia Solzhenitsyn, wrote to the 2009 Russian abridgment of The
Gulag Archipelago, a work that is now taught in Russian high
schools.
In The Wisdom of Our Ancestors, the authors mount a powerful
defense of Western civilization, sketching a fresh vision of
conservatism in the present age. In this book, Graham McAleer and
Alexander Rosenthal-Pubul offer a renewed vision of conservatism
for the twenty-first century. Taking their inspiration from the
late Roger Scruton, the authors begin with a simple question: What,
after all, is the meaning of conservatism? In reply, they make a
case for a political orientation that they call “conservative
humanism,” which threads a middle way between liberal
universalism and its ideological alternatives. This vision of
conservatism is rooted in the humanist tradition (that is,
classical humanism, Christian humanism, and secular humanism),
which the authors take to be the hallmark of Western civilizational
identity. At its core, conservative humanism attempts to reconcile
universal moral values (rooted in natural law) with local,
particularist loyalties. In articulating this position, the authors
show that the West—contra various contemporary critics—does, in
fact, have a great deal of wisdom to offer. The authors begin with
an overview of the conservative thought world, situating their
proposal relative to two major poles: liberalism and nationalism.
They move on to show that conservatism must fundamentally take the
form of a defense of humanism, the “master idea of our
civilization.” The ensuing chapters articulate various aspects of
conservative humanism, including its metaphysical, institutional,
legal, philosophical, and economic dimensions. Largely rooted in
the Anglo-Continental conservative tradition, the work offers fresh
perspectives for North American conservatism.
This book is a learned essay at the intersection of politics,
philosophy, and religion. It is first and foremost a diagnosis and
critique of the secular religion of our time, humanitarianism, or
the "religion of humanity." It argues that the humanitarian impulse
to regard modern man as the measure of all things has begun to
corrupt Christianity itself, reducing it to an inordinate concern
for "social justice," radical political change, and an increasingly
fanatical egalitarianism. Christianity thus loses its
transcendental reference points at the same time that it undermines
balanced political judgment. Humanitarians, secular or religious,
confuse peace with pacifism, equitable social arrangements with
socialism, and moral judgment with utopianism and sentimentality.
With a foreword by the distinguished political philosopher Pierre
Manent, Mahoney's book follows Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in
affirming that Christianity is in no way reducible to a
"humanitarian moral message." In a pungent if respectful analysis,
it demonstrates that Pope Francis has increasingly confused the
Gospel with left-wing humanitarianism and egalitarianism that owes
little to classical or Christian wisdom. It takes its bearings from
a series of thinkers (Orestes Brownson, Aurel Kolnai, Vladimir
Soloviev, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) who have been instructive
critics of the "religion of humanity." These thinkers were men of
peace who rejected ideological pacifism and never confused
Christianity with unthinking sentimentality. The book ends by
affirming the power of reason, informed by revealed faith, to
provide a humanizing alternative to utopian illusions and
nihilistic despair.
This first English translation of Pierre Manent’s profound and
strikingly original book La loi naturelle et les droits de
l’homme is a reflection on the central question of the Western
political tradition. In six chapters, developed from the
prestigious Étienne Gilson lectures at the Institut Catholique de
Paris, and in a related appendix, Manent contemplates the steady
displacement of the natural law by the modern conception of human
rights. He aims to restore the grammar of moral and political
action, and thus the possibility of an authentically political
order that is fully compatible with liberty. Manent boldly
confronts the prejudices and dogmas of those who have repudiated
the classical and Christian notion of “liberty under law” and
in the process shows how groundless many contemporary appeals to
human rights turn out to be. Manent denies that we can generate
obligations from a condition of what Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau
call the “state of nature,” where human beings are absolutely
free, with no obligations to others. In his view, our
ever-more-imperial affirmation of human rights needs to be
reintegrated into what he calls an “archic” understanding of
human and political existence, where law and obligation are
inherent in liberty and meaningful human action. Otherwise we are
bound to act thoughtlessly and in an increasingly arbitrary or
willful manner. Natural Law and Human Rights will engage students
and scholars of politics, philosophy, and religion, and will
captivate sophisticated readers who are interested in the question
of how we might reconfigure our knowledge of, and talk with one
another about, politics.
The Western inheritance is under sustained theoretical and
practical assault. Legitimate self-criticism has given way to
nihilistic self-loathing and cultural, moral, and political
repudiation is the order of the day. Yet, as Daniel J. Mahoney
shows in this learned, eloquent, and provocative set of essays, two
contemporary philosophic thinkers, Roger Scruton and Pierre Manent,
have––separately and together––traced a path for the
renewal of politics and practical reason, our civilized
inheritance, the natural moral law, and the soul as the enduring
site of self-conscious reflection, moral and civic agency, and
mutual accountability. Both Scruton and Manent have
repudiated the fashionable nihilism associated with the “thought
of 1968” and the “Parisian nonsense machine,” and have shown
that gratitude is the proper response of the human person to the
“givenness of things.” Both defend the self-governing nation
against reckless nationalism and the even more reckless temptation
of supranational governance and post-political democracy,
what Manent suggestively calls a “kratos” without a
“demos.” Both defend the secular state while taking aim at a
radical secularism that rejects “the Christian mark” that is at
the heart of our inheritance and that sustains the rich and
necessary interpenetration of truth and liberty. Scruton’s more
“cultural” perspective is indebted to Burke and Kant;
Manent’s more political perspective draws on Aristotle, St.
Thomas, Tocqueville, and Raymond Aron, among others. By
highlighting their affinities, and reflecting on their instructive
differences, Mahoney shows how, together, the English man of
letters Scruton, and the French political philosopher Manent, guide
us to the recovery of a horizon of thought and action animated by
practical reason and the wellsprings of the human soul. They show
us the humanizing path forward, but first we must make the
necessary spiritual decision to repudiate repudiation once and for
all. “With sophisticated and profound scholarship, Daniel
Mahoney deploys his elegant style to defend the soul of
civilization. Through the writings of Pierre Manent and Roger
Scruton, he charts a course through the political and philosophical
turmoil of the present age, providing hope and light amid the
prevailing darkness.” — Mark Dooley, Irish philosopher, writer
and journalist. Author of Conversations with
Roger Scruton and Sir Roger's literary executor.
“Mahoney's collection of essays does a marvelous job of
contextualizing and explaining the vital work of these two
philosophers. He's also an engaging and elegant writer.” —
Daniel DiSalvo, City Journal “A series of reflective essays
by Mahoney on the philosophical, theological, and
political thinking of our best conservative theorists: Pierre
Manent and the late Roger Scruton. Recovering
Politics, Civilization, and the Soul expresses well what we
need.” — Richard M. Reinsch II, National Review
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