Thomas L. Pangle - Political Philosophy Cross-Examined: Perennial Challenges to the Philosophic Life

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY CROSS-EXAMINED

RECOVERING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

SERIES EDITORS: THOMAS L. PANGLE AND TIMOTHY BURNS

PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE MACMILLAN:

Lucretius as Theorist of Political Life

By John Colman

Shakespeares Political Wisdom

By Timothy Burns

Political Philosophy Cross-Examined: Perennial Challenges to the Philosophic Life

Edited by Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY CROSS-EXAMINED

PERENNIAL CHALLENGES TO THE PHILOSOPHIC LIFE

Essays in Honor of Heinrich Meier

Edited by

Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY CROSS-EXAMINED

Copyright Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax, 2013.

All rights reserved.

First published in 2013 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

in the United Statesa division of St. Martins Press LLC,

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 9781137299628

Note on the cover illustration: Christiano Banti (18241904) painted Galileo before the Inquisition Court in 1857. A private collection in Italy currently owns this masterpiece. The photograph of the painting is copyrighted by DeA Picture Library / Art Resource of New York. The editors wish to express gratitude to a generous donor, Dr. Robert L. Stone, Esq., for his munificence in covering all fees for purchasing from Art Resource the nonexclusive world rights to this photograph.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Political philosophy cross-examined : perennial challenges to the philosophic life / edited by Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax.

pages cm.(Recovering political philosophy)

Essays in Honor of Heinrich Meier.

ISBN 9781137299628 (alk. paper)

ISBN 9781137299642

ISBN 9781137299635

1. Political sciencePhilosophy. I. Pangle, Thomas L., editor of compilation.

JA71.P62247 2013

320.01dc23 2012035806

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

First edition: April 2013

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax

Robert C. Bartlett

Christopher Bruell

Thomas L. Pangle

J. Harvey Lomax

James H. Nichols Jr.

Ronna Burger

Nathan Tarcov

Ralph Lerner

Devin Stauffer

Hasso Hofmann

Robert B. Pippin

Laurence Lampert

NOTE FROM THE SERIES EDITORS

Palgrave Macmillans Recovering Political Philosophy series was founded with an eye to postmodernisms challenge to the possibility of a rational foundation for and guidance of our political lives. This invigorating challenge has provoked a searching reexamination of classic texts, not only of political philosophers, but also of poets, artists, theologians, scientists, and other thinkers who may not be regarded conventionally as political theorists. The series publishes studies that endeavor to take up this reexamination and thereby help to recover the classical grounding for civic reason, as well as studies that clarify the strengths and the weaknesses of modern philosophic rationalism. The interpretive studies in the series are particularly attentive to historical context and language, and to the ways in which both censorial persecution and didactic concerns have impelled prudent thinkers, in widely diverse cultural conditions, to employ manifold strategies of writingstrategies that allowed them to aim at different audiences with various degrees of openness to unconventional thinking. The series offers close readings of ancient, medieval, early-modern, and late-modern works that illuminate the human condition by attempting to answer its deepest, enduring questions, and that have (in the modern periods) laid the foundations for contemporary political, social, and economic life.

This volume of essays honors the life and work of Heinrich Meier by combining the careful interpretive efforts of a distinguished, international group of scholars of political philosophy. The contributors consider serious challenges to the philosophic or rational life, and the responses to those challenges that have been given by philosophers ancient and modern. The greatest challenge to which the essays draw our attention is the prophets claims to divinely revealed knowledge. The very possibility of philosophy depends on an adequate answer to this challenge. As this volume demonstrates, the challenge was recognized by Protagoras, but was adequately addressedin a manner that preserved the possibility of philosophyfirst by Socrates and then by Socratic political philosophers, from Aristotle and Tacitus right up to Maimonides. It was addressed in a new way by modern political philosophers, from Machiavelli and Hobbes to Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. With its unique focus and yet broad range across nations and across millennia, the volume will attract the interest of students and scholars in many fields as well as intelligent and curious citizens.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The University of Memphis deserves acknowledgment for a research grant that served to support this and other projects. Special thanks are due to Henry Kurtz, Linda Bennett, and Matthias Kaelberer. Anna Schmidt, Hasso Hofmann, and Nathan Tarcov contributed generously to the planning and preparation of this volume. In particular, Professor Hofmann and his wife munificently defrayed all fees for translation. From the very beginning, Matthew Kopel proved a solicitous, reasonable, and patient editor at Palgrave Macmillan. Desiree Browne and Scarlet Neath of Palgrave gave us indispensable assistance as well. A thoughtful, philanthropic donor, Dr. Robert L. Stone, Esquire, paid for the rights to the cover photograph. Finally, Timothy Burns played a crucial role as series coeditor, and we are especially grateful for his role in delicate negotiations that led to congenial solutions for everyone.

INTRODUCTION: THE PHILOSOPHIC LIFE IN QUESTION

Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax

The chapters of this book have a common theme: philosophy as a mode of existence put into question. Political societies frequently regard philosophers as potential threats to morality and religion, and those who speak for politics often demand a defense of philosophy. Beyond politics, theoretical people, too, advance a sophisticated panoply of charges against philosophic rationalism as a tenable or defensible basis for life. It is variously contended that everything is in flux and thus human reason is theoretically impotent, that divine will transcends and reveals the impotence of human reason, that philosophy self-destructs because it is based ultimately on faith rather than reason, that full philosophic independence and freedom are morally and psychologically unattainable will-o-the-wisps, and that the profound disagreements among the greatest philosophers constitute undeniably decisive evidence of their failure to arrive at rationally demonstrable truths as regard the most important matters. The authors of the present volumeranging widely over intellectual history from the Socratics to Maimonides and the Bible, from Machiavelli, Bacon, and Hobbes through Rousseau to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and beyond, and then back again to Socratesaspire to reopen the case for the philosophic life in the face of, and while doing justice to, its most severe challengers.