Bücher der Reihe Recovering Political Philosophy

This book offers an original interpretation of Platös Laws and a new account of its enduring importance. Ballingall argues that the republican regime conceived in the Laws is built on "reverence," an archaic virtue governing emotions of self-assessment¿particularly awe and shame. Ballingall demonstrates how learning to feel these emotions in the right way, at the right time, and for the right things is the necessary basis for the rule of law conceived in the dialogue. The Laws remains surprisingly neglected in the scholarly literature, although this is changing. The cynical populisms haunting liberal democracies are focusing new attention on the ¿characterological¿ basis of constitutional government and Platös Laws remains an indispensable resource on this question, especially when we attend to the theme of reverence at its core.

This book analyzes Jonathan Swift¿s Gulliver¿s Travels from a political philosophy perspective. When authors have focused on politics in Swift¿s writings, this has usually meant a study of how Swift located himself on issues of his day such as church and state, and Ireland. Robertson claims by contrast that Gulliver¿s Travels is fundamentally a book about the ¿ancients¿ (e.g. Plato, Aristotle), and the ¿moderns¿ (science and technology), and their contrasting views about the human condition. The claim that the Travels is ¿a kind of prolegomenä to political philosophy leaves open the possibility that it does not achieve, or seek to achieve, a fusion of various teachings but rather uses the device of alien societies to point us to uncomfortable aspects of political philosophy¿s ¿larger questions¿ we are prone to ignore. Swift, Robertson argues, draws our attention to some version of the classical republic, as idealized in Aristotle¿s political writings andin Plato¿s Republic, as opposed to a modern regime which, at its best or most intellectual, emphasizes modern science and technology in combination as a way to improve the human condition.

This book provides an introductory survey of Montesquieu's economic ideas and a fresh examination of the longstanding controversy over the meaning and purpose of Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws.

Multiculturalism is often thought to be defined by its commitment to diversity, inclusivity, sensitivity, and tolerance, but these established values sometimes require contrary practices of homogenization, exclusion, insensitivity, and intolerance.

Self and City in the Thought of Saint Augustine explores the analogy between the self and political society in the thought of St. Augustine of Hippo. It argues that Augustine develops three analogies between self and city, as a society ordered by love: self-love in the case of the Earthly City;

This book recovers Aristotle's understanding of the roles of rhetoric and prudence in public leadership, comparing it to the other major political theories of leadership: utilitarianism, as advocated by J.S. Mill, and duty-ethics, as advocated by Immanuel Kant.

The work contains a critical comparison of two competing American penitentiary disciplines known as the Auburn and Philadelphia systems, an evaluation of whether American penitentiaries can successfully work in France, a detailed description of Houses of Refuge as the first juvenile detention centers, and an argument against penal colonization.

This book presents an interpretive analysis of the major themes and purpose of Alexis de Tocqueville's and Gustave de Beaumont's first work, On the Penitentiary System, thereby offering new insights into Tocqueville as a moderate liberal statesman.

This book addresses the problem of fully explaining Socrates' motives for philosophic interlocution in Plato's dialogues.

This book addresses the problem of fully explaining Socrates' motives for philosophic interlocution in Plato's dialogues.

Taking Nietzsche's commentary on the four essays in his autobiographical work Ecce Homo as its interpretive guide, this book also shows that the Untimely Meditations contain early expositions of concepts like the last man, the overman, the new philosopher, the creation of values, and the malleability of nature-all staples of his later philosophy.

This edited collection brings to light the rare virtues and uncommon merits of Raymond Aron, the main figure of French twentieth-century liberalism. The Companion to Raymond Aron is an essential supplement to Aron's autobiography Memoires (1984) and main works, exploring the substance of his political, sociological, and philosophical thought.

This book explores Cicero's moral and political philosophy with great attention to his life and thought as a whole. Cicero's recovery of Socratic political philosophy in Roman garb is then the basis for recovery of Cicero as a notable political thinker relevant to our time and its problems.

The book examines the intersection of two philosophical developments which define define contemporary life in the liberal democratic west, considering how democracy has become the only legitimate and publicly defensible regime, while also considering how modern democracy attempts to solve what Leo Strauss called the "theologico-political problem."

Eros and Socratic Political Philosophy offers a new account of Plato's view of eros, or romantic love, by focusing on a question which has vexed many scholars: why does Plato's Socrates praise eros highly on some occasions but also criticize it harshly on others?

An interpretation of Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus, paralleling the text to Machiavelli's The Prince, and focusing on the question: How did the Socratic education help Xenophon reconcile morality with effectiveness, the noble with the good, as a ruler?

"John Colman has presented us with a profound and scrupulously detailed inquiry into how Lucretius understood the tensions between the philosophic life and the requirements and characteristics of the life of political action-tensions with which Lucretius had to deal in his endeavor to bring philosophy into Rome."

Political societies frequently regard philosophers as potential threats to morality and religion, and those who speak for politics often demand a defense of philosophy. This book will address philosophy as a mode of existence put into question.

Scott Yenor argues that David Hume's reputation as a skeptic is greatly exaggerated and that Hume's skepticism is a moment leading Hume to defend common life philosophy and the humane commercial republic. Gentle, humane virtues reflect the proper reaction to the complex mixture of human faculties that define the human condition.

This book presents the first full translation of the correspondence of Leo Strauss and Gerhard Kruger, showing for each the development of key and influential ideas, along with seven interpretative essays by leading Strauss scholars.

This book presents the first full translation of the correspondence of Leo Strauss and Gerhard Kruger, showing for each the development of key and influential ideas, along with seven interpretative essays by leading Strauss scholars.