Patrick Deneen is David A. Potenziani Memorial Associate Professor of Constitutional Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His previous “On the Square” articles can be found here.
Rod Dreher calls attention to an essay by Michael Brendan Dougherty , who asks pointed questions about the failure of the thirty-six year old pro-life movement to make any significant gains against a regime of unrestricted abortion. Dougherty’s essay strikes a long and resonant chord with me: . . . . Continue Reading »
An article in yesterdays Inside Higher Education discusses a new book by a Notre Dame anthropologist that explores the reasons for widespread plagiarism among todays college students. In particular, its author recommends a departure from the prevailing system of detection and . . . . Continue Reading »
We learned last night that Timothy Geithner was confirmed as the Obama administration’s Secretary of the Treasury. While this outcome was never in real doubt, the revelation that he had failed to report upwards of $26,000 in self-employment taxes when he was an overseas employee of the . . . . Continue Reading »
This one will stir up a hornet’s nest . . . . The words “global warming” may have achieved Pavlovian status. Like the ringing of the bell that accompanied the Alpo fed to Pavlov’s dogs, the words foster an immediate and instinctive response by adherents of our . . . . Continue Reading »
A short time ago Barack Obama became the nation’s chief executive and the leader of the Free World. His inauguration as 44th President was historic and nation-altering: what was at one time an inconceivable dream - an African-American President - is now a daily fact. Flying . . . . Continue Reading »
Not to revisit a debate that, by internet standards, is now ancient history having taken place as a result of my posting last week in criticism of the modern conservative commitment to profoundly anti-conservative philosophy of liberalism but looking over what Peter wrote and others . . . . Continue Reading »
Especially in his classic 1984 work The Naked Public Square , Neuhaus tackled important and still timely issues regarding the religious underpinnings of American life, the proper division between church and state, and the real meaning of American secularism. Insofar as these studies forced him to . . . . Continue Reading »
We enter a season in which the meaning of conservatism becomes the ping-pong ball du jour. With not only an election, but the meaning of the “movement” in itself in the contention, people of various beliefs and commitments seek to lay claim to the word and thereby to the direction . . . . Continue Reading »
Since my name is now on the masthead, perhaps an introduction is in order. My name is Patrick Deneen, and - like a few other people who write here - I am by trade a political theorist. I teach at Georgetown University where I hold a chair in Hellenic studies and nearly three years ago founded a . . . . Continue Reading »
Genuine diversity depends, of course, on lives formed by different understandings of the self or soul. Our tradition of diversity has been largely of diverse religious communities. Now we talk so much about diversity because we’re anxiously aware that we’re losing it. Diversity has largely been . . . . Continue Reading »
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