The first task of the wise legislator in his effort to regulate emulation is to actively conduct the passion toward politically useful objects and thereby place the passion "on the side of virtue." Political Architecture: The Natural Order of the Many A full understanding of the passion for distinction requires that we look at man [...]
I have recently been hearing a great deal about “the tiny house movement.” Trailers for yuppies did not seem like such a big deal to me at first. But the justifications many in this movement have been making for their lifestyle choice have reminded me of some fundamental changes taking place in Americans’ priorities—changes I [...]
John Adams wondered why men cannot live together “naturally” at peace, with the justice of their relations emerging immediately from the operation of reason in each individual. As elaborated thus far, natural law teaches that legitimate government is circumscribed by liberty in a dual sense: It derives from the consent of equally free individuals, and [...]
Of all John Adams' published writings, two works provide an especially fruitful resource for an inquiry into his deepest political reflection. Imacon Color Scanner As a political writer, John Adams is most remembered today for the constitutional prescriptions by which he helped to solidify the American Revolution. His Thoughts on Government was widely circulated [...]
The Religion of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by [...]
It may be said, indeed it has been said, that a bill of rights is not necessary, because the establishment of this Government has not repealed those declarations of rights which are added to the several State constitutions; that those rights of the people, which had been established by the most solemn act, could not [...]
II The related problems of “the public orthodoxy” and “the open society” were major concerns of Willmoore Kendall throughout his professional career. In his reappraisal of John Locke in 1941, Kendall’s Locke emerged as an exponent of the public orthodoxy as expressed through the majority. As Kendall sees it, in Lockean thought, “In consenting to be a member [...]
Editor’s Note: This speech was delivered by Patrick Henry on June 5, 1788, at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, against the proposed Constitution, and is reproduced here as recorded by the convention’s secretary. Mr. HENRY. Mr. Chairman, I am much obliged to the very worthy gentleman for his encomium. I wish I was possessed with talents, or possessed of [...]
What do Eurosceptic movements, support for Donald Trump, and recent college protesters have in common? All are populist reactions to political correctness and its precondition of abolishing our common political sense of what we can do together. Such a lesson one can garner from French philosopher Pierre Manent, who is little known in America, but [...]
The foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality. There is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness. Fellow Citizens of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could [...]
Critics have taken to calling the leftist agitators who are running roughshod over university campuses hypocrites. The reasoning is that these self-described social-justice warriors, by shouting down speakers, silencing dissent on social media, and forcing resignations from those they accuse of “injustice,” are betraying the very toleration that allows them to speak freely. Unfortunately, the [...]
We face great challenges at this moment in history. We face cyber threats. We face a resurgent Russia under Vladimir Putin. We face a jihadi threat. We face the growing threat of nonstate actors, who now can carry out massive attacks and are as able to play on the global stage as state actors. We [...]
Liberty and equality are the uncontested “values” of the modern world. They have been paid lip service to by all the parties, including the Communists, who did so much to smother them in the course of the twentieth century (hence the ubiquitous “people’s republics” that brought untold misery to a third of the globe). Some have even argued that we [...]
The liberal arts college is a place to learn the values of community and communal learning. But today we promote, through online courses and career-focused curricula, a culture of individualism that is anathema to the liberal democratic project. College, for me, has always been something of an interstitial space: an oasis between adolescence and adulthood, [...]