This is a great piece as always Sam. It made me think of Arendt's definition of revolution and her distinction between the French and the American revolution. I was also thinking of Jonathan Israel's book Revolutionary Ideas that charts the progress of the French Revolution and his argument of the deformation of the very philosophy that …
This is a great piece as always Sam. It made me think of Arendt's definition of revolution and her distinction between the French and the American revolution. I was also thinking of Jonathan Israel's book Revolutionary Ideas that charts the progress of the French Revolution and his argument of the deformation of the very philosophy that initially drove it. Oddly enough, I also learned this morning that Cicero was cited 10x more frequently in Assembly debates than Rousseau which might give some indication of some of the deeper roots of this kind of philosophising.
I totally agree with you about the importance of acknowledging first principle differences. I was wondering though structurally if there does need to be a stronger ballast for us to manifest those first principle differences. If not then where can we truly manifest them? The french revolution ultimately failed because of that lack of structure leading ultimately to chaos, bloodshed and defeat. I think this is also an issue for liberals as well as those on the left although you are correct to highlight this is a bigger issue for those imagining a greater society.
This is a great piece as always Sam. It made me think of Arendt's definition of revolution and her distinction between the French and the American revolution. I was also thinking of Jonathan Israel's book Revolutionary Ideas that charts the progress of the French Revolution and his argument of the deformation of the very philosophy that initially drove it. Oddly enough, I also learned this morning that Cicero was cited 10x more frequently in Assembly debates than Rousseau which might give some indication of some of the deeper roots of this kind of philosophising.
I totally agree with you about the importance of acknowledging first principle differences. I was wondering though structurally if there does need to be a stronger ballast for us to manifest those first principle differences. If not then where can we truly manifest them? The french revolution ultimately failed because of that lack of structure leading ultimately to chaos, bloodshed and defeat. I think this is also an issue for liberals as well as those on the left although you are correct to highlight this is a bigger issue for those imagining a greater society.