Lately, I’ve been writing and thinking a lot about the place of uncertainty in modern political life. It’s central to my dissertation—because I’m confident that it’s central to 20th and 21st century politics. I mean something fairly specific by “uncertainty” here. To some degree, “radical pluralism” might be a better term. If you’ve ever found … Continue reading
I was rereading John Dewey’s “Democracy is Radical” last week in preparation for a lecture, and the opening lines are haunting me: There is comparatively little difference among the groups at the left as to the social ends to be reached. There is a great deal of difference as to the means by which these … Continue reading
The dissertation is about 50% done at this point. The following is one in a series of posts which you can find here. It’s a good chunk of the closing section of my chapter on John Dewey and Michael Oakeshott’s assessment of history’s place in modern politics. Pretty dull, right? Well, perhaps, but it’s also … Continue reading
A reader responds to my post on George Will, via email: Either we have objective natural rights or we don’t. And it’s pretty clear that we can’t *know* that there are natural rights just like we can’t *know* that the contents of an objective reality (e.g. I am not a brain-in-a-vat) or *know* that there … Continue reading
Matt Yglesias wonders if the debt ceiling fight is proving that the American federal government has ceased to govern: Still, crazy and feckless politicians have always been around. It’s worth considering the possibility that the debt-ceiling fiasco reflects not an upsurge in insanity but long-simmering problems with the basic structure of American political institutions. … … Continue reading
How can theorists protect politics and political arguments from post-modernism’s full-blown epistemological hypochondria? Method offers stability and a measure of certainty. It offers the sort of reassurance that could warrant our asserting the desirability of a choice (to use a Deweyan phrase). By eschewing methodological narrowness in politics, Dewey and Oakeshott seem to leave politics … Continue reading
First of all, let’s get a few things straight: I really, really, REALLY like Freddie DeBoer’s work. He writes eloquently about the ideas undergirding progressivism, which is pretty rare (in the blogosphere or on Capitol Hill). Concern about this is what pulled me to start writing outside of academia. Special note to trolls: The “Irresponsible … Continue reading
John Dewey, writing in The New Republic, April, 1925 on disarmament, military bases abroad, and international racism: [The propaganda] is but one of many signs of the attempt to create the belief that at some time or other and probably reasonably soon there is going to be an armed conflict either between all the colored … Continue reading
Louis Menand has been a favorite of mine since he wrote The Metaphysical Club. He has a top-notch article this week in The New Yorker. It’s on the value of college: A lot of confusion is caused by the fact that since 1945 American higher education has been committed to both theories. The system is designed … Continue reading
More thoughts from the dissertation (working along similar lines to this earlier post): – While this is not a knockout argument proving the objective worth of democratic institutions, it suggests that they are appropriate matches for the times in which we live, an apt constellation of political ideals to match the state of modern material … Continue reading
