Reading: de Maistre, The Generative Principle of Constitutions. The United States Constitution is a document, assumed to have a precise, if disputed, meaning, which lays down the fundamental procedures and offices under which the country as a whole is to be governed, and defines the rights and duties of the citizens …(Read More)
If we look back to the first class, where I outlined some of the currents in conservative thinking, and gave a preliminary list of the important topics – the points where the conservative view is, as it were put to the test, either of fact or of thought – we …(Read More)
Philosophical anthropology: the conservative view of the nature of the person, of responsibility, inter-personal attitudes, freedom, shame, pride, sin and redemption. Democracy: the conservative view of the democratic process, its limits and preconditions. The nature of hierarchies and what makes them acceptable. Checks and balances. The nation: the relative merits of territorial and …(Read More)
In the well known postscript to The Constitution of Liberty, entitled ‘Why I am not a Conservative’, Hayek states what he calls ‘the decisive objection to any conservatism which deserves to be called such’, which is ‘that by its very nature it cannot offer an alternative to the direction in which …(Read More)
(Course for Philosophy and Politics Graduates at Princeton University) Fall 2006 These notes summarize the material presented in a series of 12 three-hour classes for Philosophy and Politics graduates at Princeton University. They are not scholarly, but are intended as guides only, to be read in conjunction with the texts …(Read More)
‘A beautiful symphony’, ‘a beautiful landscape’, ‘a beautiful woman’, ‘a beautiful soul’, ‘a beautiful machine’, ‘a beautiful proof’, ‘a beautiful article’ – are these expressions all to be understood in the same way, as dealing with a single quality, impression or experience? If there is a single quality called beauty, …(Read More)
The Antinomy of Taste. Kant argued that judgements of the beautiful are subjective – namely, that they arise from, depend upon and express, our immediate perceptual apprehension of their object. In talking of the beautiful I am not telling you how the world is independently of my perception: I am …(Read More)
Aesthetics and Everyday Life. Some light can be cast on the problem of objectivity if we turn our attention away from both art and nature, and enquire into the place of aesthetic judgement in everyday life. In many commonplace activities aesthetic judgement has an important role: furnishing a room, laying …(Read More)
Aesthetic Judgement and Beauty. In the 18th century ‘beauty’ and ‘aesthetic value’ were regarded as all but synonymous. The aesthetic experience, for philosophers like Shaftesbury, Burke, Hume and Kant, who were the first to explore its nature in a systematic way, arose from beauty, and it was because we value …(Read More)
What do we mean when we praise a landscape, a painting, a piece of music or a person as ‘beautiful’? Does this word have a single meaning, and does it denote a single value? Why do we describe the object of sexual attraction using the same term that we use …(Read More)