Suchergebnisse

What might a Stoic approach to politics look like? David Goodhart aptly describes the political divide pervading Western societies in terms of the 'somewheres,' who are communitarian, rooted in particular places, and resistant to social and political change, versus the 'anywheres,' who are cosmopolitan, mobile, and enthusiastic embracers of change. Stoicism recognizes a similar distinction. This paper defends a conservative interpretation of Stoic politics. According to 'Stoic conservatism,' cosmopolitanism is an ethical ideal through which we perform the obligations assigned by our communitarian role(s) in society. The view is 'conservative' in that it favors existing institutions as the starting point for virtue instead of reasoning a priori about what virtue requires. Stoic politics consists neither in cosmopolitan transcendence of particular attachments, nor in passive acceptance of the communitarian status quo, but in ethical improvement toward virtue, within the political structure of society.

Rejecting the Lockean individualism that he sees running throughout American life, he worries that Americans think of themselves mostly as free individuals, and thus they ignore their full human nature as 'parents, children, friends, citizens, or creatures' (p. xi). Beyond Lockean constitutionalism, American culture should be governed by a rich understanding of human nature rooted in common-sense natural law, religious faith, and existential anxiety.

La notion de conservatisme, courante dans le discours politique, est-elle applicable à l'art ? Les catégories politiques ont envahi ce domaine depuis le xix e siècle. Pourtant, le terme « conservatisme » n'y a pas prospéré. D'une part, l'art a pour principe la nouveauté, ce qui rend problématique un discours explicitement conservateur. D'autre part le conservatisme en art n'exige subjectivement que si l'idéologie prescrit un devoir d'avant-gardisme. Ce qui n'obéit pas à cet impératif est alors exclu de l'histoire. S'il existe bien un art objectivement conservateur, il est difficile de le revendiquer. La dissymétrie observable entre discours politique et discours esthétique devient ainsi compréhensible.