The Reopening of the American Mind: On Skepticism and ConstitutionalismRodopi, 1998 - 274 sider The Reopening of the American Mind: On Skepticism and Constitutionalism explores the connection of moderate skepticism with attachment to constitutionalism through the thought of five writers. The features of this skepticism were concisely delineated by James Madison in the 37th Federalist as a recognition of the complexity of political matters, the limitations of human reason, and the shortcomings of language. The position was first articulated by Cicero who connected it with the idea of a mixed or republican constitution developed by trial and error over generations. Cicero was influential in the world of David Hume, Edmund Burke, and Madison. The skeptical/constitutional connection found its most articulate recent advocate in Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and underlay his advocacy of judicial restraint. Current events have revived interest in the primacy of the legislative branch in balancing interests and rights, in the States as laboratories for democracy, and in an experimental approach to the solution of social problems in what might be called a reopening of the American mind. The five central chapters explore the skeptical/constitutional connection and the spirit of moderation in these political thinkers. Without an appreciation of this tradition of avoiding dogmatism, people will continue to demand simple answers to complex problems. The book is not, however, primarily a tract for the times but a reflection on the on-going search for a more civil world. |
Innhold
| 11 | |
| 11 | |
| 14 | |
| 33 | |
CICERO AND THE ORIGINS OF SKEPTICISM | 52 |
Other Works | 89 |
HUME | 95 |
BURKE | 111 |
The Harvard Publications and Their Applications | 159 |
The Flag Salute Cases | 175 |
Democracy | 184 |
Legal Reasoning | 191 |
Due Process | 201 |
Exemplars | 207 |
Conclusion | 216 |
Bibliographical and Critical Appendix | 218 |
The Grounding and Growth of Principles | 121 |
Reason in Sickness and in Health | 132 |
FELIX FRANKFURTER | 135 |
The Status of Frankfurter | 139 |
Biographical Sketch | 142 |
The Canonical Figures | 151 |
POSTSCRIPTS | 221 |
NOTES | 231 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 251 |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | 267 |
INDEX | 269 |
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The Reopening of the American Mind: On Skepticism and Constitutionalism James W. Vice Begrenset visning - 2021 |
The Reopening of the American Mind: On Skepticism and Constitutionalism James W. Vice Begrenset visning - 1998 |
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Populære avsnitt
Side 22 - But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others.
Side 23 - As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other ; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.
Side 133 - We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason, because we suspect that this stock in each man is small and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.
Side 78 - But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Side 118 - England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was most predominant ; and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on English principles.
Side 128 - The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science; because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate...
Side 87 - The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
Side 133 - Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and to leave nothing but the naked reason...
Side 82 - ... whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.
Side 23 - By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.