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This essay begins with the assumption that Richard Rorty means everything he says; its question, however, is ultimately why he says everything he means. Politically speaking, for someone who is unconstrained by metaphysical concerns about the "right" or the "good," what counts is not being right, but being successful. Hence my question for Rorty is simply this: why be honest when deception might be more effective? I contend that in the context of American political culture that his honest practice of his philosophy undermines his politics. Unlike other critical accounts, mine focuses on his tactics and Rorty's own failure to accept the burdens and possibilities of his own theoretical work. I then offer Rorty a model of deception for his consideration from Miguel de Unamuno's short story "St. Emmanuel the Good, Martyr," that he might have made use of had he been more interested in political results than in being thought honest.

Duncan reviews 'Ratifying the Republic: Antifederalists and Federalists in Constitutional Time' by David J. Siemers.

C. S. Lewis claimed that he was a democrat because he believed in the fall of man. He went on to suggest that it was not that some men did not deserve to be slaves, but that none deserved to be masters. While not exactly the sort of uplifting proclamation that many partisans of democracy would hope to rally their followers around, it does provide those among us who are persuaded that human beings are limited in their capacities to reject vice and sin with an avenue and persuasive rationale to join their ranks. It is with this sort of view in mind that H. Lee Cheek, Jr.'s provocative and cogently argued book on the political thought of John C. Calhoun ought to be read.

In this argument the Agrarian role in the American political drama is not necessarily the specific one implied by the dichotomy: "Agrarian versus Industrial" (Twelve Southerners [1930] 1977, xxxviii), or the policist pronouncement"… that the culture of the soil is the best… and that therefore it should have the economic preference and enlist the maximum number of workers"(xlvii). Instead, this is an attempt to place them in a role similar to that played by Sophocles' Antigone—and Sophocles himself—juxtaposing them to the North's Creon. I argue that the Southern Agrarian "voice," when heard properly, makes, possible the tragic sense, adjured by America's unequivocal attachment to modernity's gospel of progress. By positioning the Agrarians in such a way the goal is to point out a way of thinking about the political world, to create a sensibility that is only possible when their voice or another like it is heard properly and with its own timbre. If the project is successful, then two aims will be realized. First, the place and role of the Southern Agrarians in the history of American political thought will be made clearer. And secondly, the history of American political thought will have been employed in part as a kind of theoretical advocacy in the service of American political theory.

In this argument, the Agrarian role in the American political drama is not necessarily the specific one implied by the dichotomy: "Agrarian versus Industrial" (Twelve Southerners (1977 [1930], xxxviii), or the policist pronouncement ". . . that the culture of the soil is the best. & that therefore it should have the economic preference & enlist the maximum number of workers" (xlvii). Instead, this is an attempt to place them in a role similar to that played by Sophocles's Antigone -- & Sophocles himself -- juxtaposing them to the North's Creon. I argue that the Southern Agrarian "voice," when heard properly, makes, possible the tragic sense, adjured by America's unequivocal attachment to modernity's gospel of progress. By positioning the Agrarians in such a way, the goal is to point out a way of thinking about the political world, to create a sensibility that is only possible when their voice or another like it is heard properly & with its own timbre. If the project is successful, then two aims will be realized. First, the place & role of the Southern Agrarians in the history of American political thought will be made clearer & secondly, the history of American political thought will have been employed in part as a kind of theoretical advocacy in the service of American political theory. 109 References. Adapted from the source document.