On Debate and Existence
In our capacity as political scientists, historians, or philosophers we all have had occasion at one time or another to engage in debate with ideologists — whether…
On Classical Studies
A reflection on classical studies, their purpose and prospects, will properly start from Wolf’s definition of classic philology as the study of man’s nature as it has…
The American Experience
I was awarded one of the first Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial Fellowships and came to the United States from Austria for two years of study at Columbia,…
Saint Thomas Aquinas on History, Politics, and Law
Sic enim est dispositio rerum in veritate, sicut in esse. - Saint Thomas, Contra Gentiles History: Truth and Being The work of Saint Thomas (1225-1274) absorbed…
The English Quest for the Concrete
The Growth of European Nationalism The development of political ideas after 1700 becomes increasingly parochial in the sense that problems that are specific to the several national…
The Oxford Political Philosophers
Political Theory and the National State The wars and revolutions of the twentieth century bring to its end a period that begins with the consolidation of the…
Rome and Christianity
St. Augustine and Varro's Civil Theology It is curious that both Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, while bitterly engaged in the struggle for existential representation of Christianity,…
Reconsidering the Nazi Era
The address which I am to deliver to you today was originally not planned as part of this series of lectures on "The German University and the…
Immortality: Experience and Symbol
The Struggle between Man and his Soul As the purpose of this inquiry is not a description of symbols but an analysis of the experiences engendering them,…
Looking at the Big Questions
ERIC O'CONNOR: I remarked to you yesterday that I had found your use of apeiron a bit ambiguous; it meant "limitless" in a good sense at some…
Equivalents of Experience and Symbolization
The search for the constants of human order in society and history is, at present, uncertain of its language. An older body of concepts is proving inadequate…
Natural Law and Aristotle: What is Right by Nature?
In classical philosophy "right by nature" was a symbol, with the help of which the philosopher interpreted his noetic experience of right human action. Through the dogmatization…
Remembrance of Things Past
In 1943 I had arrived at a dead end in my attempts to find a theory of man, society, and history that would permit an adequate interpretation…
Christianity’s Decisive Difference
A Letter to Alfred Schütz January 1, 1953 My dear friend, How could I begin the New Year better than with a reply to your kind, so…
Merely a Matter of Time
A Letter to G. H. Müller January 27, 1978 Dear Mr. Mueller: Your letter, dated Fall 1977, has been lying unanswered on my desk.1 The reason:…