According to Jan Patocka, the Roman order represents a new stage in the history of responsibility because it represents a single entity toward which all are responsible: “the Roman principality presents the problem of a ne responsibility, founded upon transcendence in the social context as well, a responsibility towards a State that can no longer be a community of persons who are equal in respect of their freedom. From then on freedom is determined not by relations among equals (compatriots) but by a relation to the transcendent Good . . . . In the final anlaysis the social problem of the Roman Empire is also consolidated on grounds made possible by the Platonic conception of the soul.”
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Classroom Heals the Wounds of Generations
“Hope,” wrote the German-American polymath Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “is the deity of youth.” Wholly dependent on adults, children…
Still Life, Still Sacred
Renaissance painters would use life-sized wooden dolls called manichini to study how drapery folds on the human…
Letters
I am writing not to address any particular article, but rather to register my concern about the…
