“The Roots of Ordered Liberty: America at 250” The Academy of Philosophy and Letters is proud to announce a lineup for our annual conference featuring talks by such conservative luminaries as Nathan Pinkoski, D. C. Schindler, and Kody W. Cooper. We will host a debate over whether the Federalists or the Anti-Federalists were ultimately right, [...]
“Forms that Fit: The Permanent Things in a Turbulent Time” In his magisterial study of the character of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville notes that, in democratic ages, the formalities tend to be abandoned and undermined. This is because, he says, “men living in democratic ages do not readily comprehend the utility of forms: they [...]
Since humanism has been the core of the Western tradition through the centuries, the emergence of anti-humanism and post-humanism represents an inflection point of our civilizational crisis. In confronting this crisis, conservative humanism aims not to erase the positive achievements of modern humanism, but to graft them back onto their roots where they can draw [...]
Our world is rife with idealism—and that’s a bad thing. Consider our social policy where we dream of a world of perfect equality, rejecting obvious differences of sex, talent, and culture. The result is suppression of free speech (no room for a loyal opposition), mutilated children (a small price to pay for egalitarian paradise), and [...]
Historical consciousness and the attendant self-knowledge show what man has become, what he has made of himself, not only through his deeds but also, and more importantly, through the contemplation of what he has been. Together these insights potentially constitute the foundation of a new humanism, encouraging us to turn backward and inward rather than [...]
What do we mean by humanism, in the real world of legacies and influences? When Irving Babbitt passed away in 1933, he left an incredible legacy of allies, students, and literature. His humanism—so powerfully a part of the cultural mores of his day—transformed into several things following his death (or shortly before it). [...]
Irving Babbitt’s humanism was not radically intricate or convoluted: It was a reflection of nature and, at least to the wise, of common sense. No one could—in his wildest dreams—dismiss the humanism of Babbitt as a mere fad or a marginal movement; all thinking people engaged the ideas, whether they found them palatable or not. [...]