Comment on Ralph Hancock, The Responsibility of Reason: Theory and Practice in a Liberal-Democratic Age

Abstract

Ralph Hancock's Responsibility of Reason distinguishes two “axes of transcendence,” vertical and horizontal, characteristic of ancient and modern philosophy, respectively, and settles for a mixed regime in which both can stake their claim. Praising Tocqueville and Heidegger for their trenchant analyses of the modern problem, Hancock criticizes the effort by Leo Strauss and his “High Straussian” disciples to restore classical political philosophy as post-Christian, that is, denying rather than acknowledging Christian insight. Regarding Strauss, I think the criticism misfires, for Strauss's adage to understand authors as they understood themselves allows Christianity, too, to appear as fresh as the classical authors to whom the early Christians responded. Moreover, to settle the responsibility of reason in our time requires coming to terms with the achievements as well as the limits of modern science, the epitome of reason to most modern men. Heidegger's critique of technology does not exhaust this responsibility, nor ensure that political liberty can be recovered in its wake.