Abstract

The thread uniting the preceding four essays concerns the place of statesmanship within a modern world characterized by mass politics, impersonal forces, and the simultaneous emancipation and denigration of the democratic soul. In this brief response, I consider the capacity of statesmanship to encourage political prudence and moderation today. Noting the importance of the disagreement between Spinoza and Tocqueville for helping us understand this problem, I describe Tocqueville’s acuity in articulating its peculiar dimensions, but I also highlight the importance for today’s liberalism of Spinoza’s defense of reason.

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