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Leon Kass as Postmodern Conservative

From First Thoughts

Leon’ s Jefferson lecture, a very personal intellectual autobiography that transcends the fashionable dichotomy between reason (or philosophy) and revelation (while meanwhile having nothing Catholic or Christian about it), is a deep and authentic account of postmodern realism. It should be . . . . Continue Reading »

Metaphysical vs. Darwinian Conservatism?

From First Thoughts

Larry Arnhart explains that a Darwinian conservative believes that religious belief can be socially useful and, for that reason, salutary. A metaphysical conservative, such as ME, believes that religious belief can actually be true. He adds that Hume and Tocqueville agree with him and not ME by . . . . Continue Reading »

Stonewall and Southern Strategery

From First Thoughts

Bob Cheeks below, with admirable selective nostalgia, speculates that the South could have won at Gettysburg with Jackson on the field.  Well, maybe.  Bob is right that, from Stonewall’s view,  the very location of that battle was misconceived and probably guaranteed not to . . . . Continue Reading »

Darwinian Conservatism?

From First Thoughts

http://darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com/   is the blog-site of Larry Arnhart, the leading Darwinian conservative.  There,  you can see, he describes ME as a Gnostic existentialist Heideggerian for not believing that Darwin explains it all about human beings.  Arnhart puts . . . . Continue Reading »

Obama and Despotism

From First Thoughts

So lovers of freedom are all over the president for three reasons.  First, his enormous expansion of the reach of the national government will produce the schoolmarmish soft despotism of apathetic dependents feared by Tocqueville.  To some extent that’s undeniably the intention of . . . . Continue Reading »

Postmodernism Wrongly Understood

From First Thoughts

So I thought I’d share with you an excerpt of a talk I recently gave on dignity and higher education: Today’s “postmodern” professor of the humanities doesn’t even claim to have a “wholistic” view of the art of human life, although he or she often still . . . . Continue Reading »

Why IS Conservatism Postmodern?

From First Thoughts

I’ve gotten a few random emails about POSTMODERN CONSERVATISM either being an oxymoron or some bad joke.  Well, it can be that, I guess.  No doubt some believe that postmodern conservatism is conservatism gone stylish, contemporary, young, beautiful, metrosexual, pop cultural, and . . . . Continue Reading »

What Do We Owe the Puritans?

From First Thoughts

So we had an interesting discussion at Berry College tonight, featuring our own Jim Ceaser, on why Tocqueville talks up the Puritans and slights the Declaration of Independence. Ivan the K already mentioned the observation of our French visitor R. L. Bruckburger , who reminded us that the . . . . Continue Reading »

This is just a test

From First Thoughts

We’re back, obviously. I just figured out it wasn’t above my pay grade after all to get access to this new site. Greetings from Rochester, NY, where I’m about to leave a great conference on Chantal Delsol. Chantal herself was here, as was Dan Mahoney, Ivan the K, Paul Seaton, and . . . . Continue Reading »