Comments on: Random Stuff

By: Very Late Thoughts On Scott Walker » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:20:00 +0000

[...] Peter Lawler is right that the public perception of the recall procedure as being inappropriate for normal political [...]

By: Patrick Cain

Patrick Cain — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:39:49 +0000

Thanks, Paul – I have ordered a few Manent books to look through (I have read none of his yet) – so what you write is very helpful

By: John Lewis

John Lewis — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:26:42 +0000

Transhumanism of course can be imagined long before it is ever possible. Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse seems to be an exploration of the darker alternatives.

By: paul seaton

paul seaton — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 19:22:28 +0000

Patrick, The City of Man isn’t really political philosophy; plus, it’s a very difficult book for beginners. (It’s a philosophical analysis of “modern consciousness” and Manent himself thought he needed to subsequently address certain misunderstandings of his view of “modernity” that the book naturally gave rise to.) I’d recommend A World beyond Politics? It is Manent doing political philosophy, i.e., articulating the fundamental “statics and dynamics” of the present situation (circa 2001). It’s a model for how a mind steeped in the full tradition of western political philosophy and social thought turns his attention to the present and analyses it sine ira et studio (nor is it merely descriptive: his normative criteria are “the political nature of man” and “the political condition of mankind”). It would be more accessible to your students and give them a much better model for how to think about politics, economics, society, etc. than 90% of today’s theory.

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:31:41 +0000

I should probably take your class, Sara. And it’s a good point that Barrett conceded the collective bargaining issue, and Obama sort of did too.

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:29:49 +0000

Habermas–of late has good opinions but is hard to read and is only worth reading for a professional theorist. The agreeable dialogue between him and the pope on the future of Europe is of course now very interesting to Mr. Ceaser, but the American situation doesn’t really fit into either side.

Public reason–has been outed successfully as liberal conventionalism by Rawls. So again only interesting for professional theorists. I resist the temptation to write a lot about Rorty is just a whole lot better than Rawls and Rawlsians. The not-so-latent transhumanism of Rawls and especially Rawlsians is interesting to me, of course.

I sort of like Luc Ferry but for my audience the American transhumanists work better. Bourgeois enlightenment hubris…

Art Deco–pretty funny, I hope.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:31:13 +0000

Two teaching “issues”: What’s a not obviously conservative book written in the last few years of sufficient weight to be used in a contemporary political thought class? What’s an introductory book on presidential elections etc. for background for an intro American government class?

Actually, they should drop these classes and study a serious subject, i.e. economics or quantitative sociology.

By: Mrsschiavolin

Mrsschiavolin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 03:17:01 +0000

Re Walker – I think the passion on the side of conservatives can be seen in the large turnout in Milwaukee and huge margins in almost every county outside of Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Madison. I really think the left overplayed their hand and turned a lot of moderate people off. Not to mention Act 10 is working…so well that Barrett didn’t run on collective bargaining.

I think one of the most troubling aspects of the exit polls (with their flaws) is the huge racial divide in the recall vote. Whites were fairly even, but blacks came out something like 75% for Barrett. In the city of Milwaukee unemployment of black males is running 44%, yet they clearly supported a mayor who has done nothing for them.

By: Patrick Cain

Patrick Cain — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:10:01 +0000

Who is Rawls?

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:02:56 +0000

You could have the public sphere debate beginning with Rawls’ “Idea of Public Reason Revisited.” Responses might include articles by Habermas, Wolterstorff, and Rorty.

Something by Luc Ferry. I like to use Man Made God. Humanism motivated by contemporary ethical and political problems and constructed mostly with the help of Kant and the phenomenological tradition.