Dignitas Infinita Is a Muddled Failure

by Mark Shiffman

Dignitas Infinita's weakness as a magisterial document is that it is insufficiently clarifying to serve as a teaching. Continue Reading »

3 Jun 2024

I’ll Have Consequences

by Gilbert Meilaender

Not too many years ago, I knew a little boy who was prone to temper tantrums that included yelling, kicking, and hitting. He wasn’t entirely to blame for this, having had a rough start in life. Nevertheless, that sort of behavior couldn’t just be excused, and, of course, if uncorrected it would . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 2018

Liberal Ressentiment

by Julius Krein

Age of Anger: A History of the Presentby pankaj mishrafarrar, straus and giroux, 320 pages, $26 Despite the subtitle of his book, Pankaj Mishra is not interested in understanding the past or the present. His aim, instead, is to dispose of those who voted for Trump, Brexit, Netanyahu, or Modi, . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Aug 2017

Rousseau, Sanders, and the Religious Test

by David T. Koyzis

Earlier this month, Sanders appeared not to understand that there is no justice where religious liberty lacks protection. Continue Reading »

26 Jun 2017

The Voracious Nought

by Peter Lawler

I just got back from giving a lecture at a small liberal-arts college. The tenured professors were complaining. (That, after all, is allegedly what tenure gives professors the unlimited right to do). Their main complaint: Students are no longer doing the reading for “core texts” or . . . . Continue Reading »

8 Apr 2014

Human Condition v. Human Nature: My Response to Chantal Delsol

by Carl Scott

In the thread below, Chantal Delsol graciously responded to my observation that her more recent book had dropped the occasional references to human nature used in earlier books. While still utilizing the term “natural” to reference to certain biological determinations, she affirmed that . . . . Continue Reading »

2 Feb 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #25: Simon and Garfunkel, “Sounds of Silence”

by Carl Scott

Sounds of Silence, as few other songs can, gives one a genuine scare regarding modern life. It is like pages out of Spengler, or Rousseau, condensed to a poetic moment. How does it do this? I’m sure much could be explained by the ominous melody, and the way the cherubic voices are contrasted . . . . Continue Reading »

24 Oct 2011

As I lay dying

by Will Wilson

Chris Dierkes at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen has a thoughtful post up contesting Sir Edward Downes’ son’s description of his parents’ decision to undergo voluntary euthanization as “a very civilized act”. This passage was perhaps the most interesting: All I’m . . . . Continue Reading »

27 Jul 2009

Rousseau & the Revolt Against Reason

by Mary Ann Glendon

In 1749 the Academy of Dijon offered a prize for the best essay on the question, “Has the restoration of the sciences and the arts contributed to the improvement of mores?” Most of the contestants must have vied in counting the ways “enlightenment” had raised the level of culture. By the . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 1999

The Crisis of the West: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the Imperative of Salvation

by William E. Johnston Jr.

What is the crisis of the West? In some cases the sense of this frequently asked if daunting question may be quite specific. It may refer, say, to an economic crisis: trade deficits, foreign indebtedness, or the collapse of the Third World. If something is not done immediately to cure this . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jun 1990