Nature and the Nation

In this episode I examine Jean-Jacques Rousseau's early work, Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Mankind. I look at his examination of the natural man, and his accusations against property and the beginnings of strife.

In this episode I look at Richard McKirahan's study of the presocratics in Philosophy Before Socrates, with a focus on Empedocles, Homer and Pindar.

In this episode I look at the relentless hunger of technology, as described by Friedrich Junger in The Failure of Technology.

In this episode, I examine Karl Jaspers presentation of the masses, and the global apparatus and technique that sustains them, as presented in Man in the Modern Age.

In this episode, I examine the connection between naturalism and crunchy conservatism, as described by Rd Dreher in Crunchy Cons. I especially focus on food and our relationship to it, exploring a secular or pantheistic response to Dreher's Christian approach.

In this episode, I examine the connection between conservatism and nationalism as described in The Case for Nationalism by Rich Lowry, with a focus on the premises that nationalism is old, natural, and powerful.

In this episode I look at the long-running populist current in conservative thought, as detailed by Laura Ingrahan in Billionaire at the Barricades, later released as Busting the Barricades. I pay special attention to Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot, and our failing international trade policies.

In this episode I examine Jeff Flake's Conscience of a Conservative, with a critical examination of Flake's failure to anticipate or understand the rise of Trump. I discuss how, while I share Flake's desire for decency in politics, his principled political stance is ultimately too naive to effectively respond to the corrosive anti-American attacks of modern leftism.

In this episode I examine the classic text The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater, drawing attention to the focus of Goldwater and others of his era on federalism and the struggle against communism, with an evaluation of the ultimate result of 20th Century conservatism.

In this episode, I look at Lasch's collection of his last essays, The Revolt of the Elites. I examine his support for populism, criticism of liberal snobbery, and support the use of pragmatism to rebuke the academic left.

In this episode I examine the Mass Man of Ortega y Gasset's Revolt of the Masses, with a focus on the origins of the Mass Man in liberal abundance and the abolition of limitation.

In this episode I examine the friend/enemy distinction in Carl Schmitt's The Concept of the Political, including the liberal tendency to deny the political and aim toward a post-political world.

In this episode I examine Alexander Dugin's statements about the division between technical and social modernity and it's relation to the West, in the Rise of the Fourth Political Theory.

In this episode I look at the organic lifecycle of the culture and civilization as described by Spengler in the abridged version of his classic book The Decline of the West.

In this episode I look at the leftward direction of Pragmatism led by John Dewey, as outlined in his book Reconstruction in Philosophy, as well as his restatement of principles near the end of his life.

In this episode I review William James' Psychology (Briefer Course), the abridged version Principles of Psychology. I focus on the biological nature of habit and instinct.

In this episode I return to the topic of the philosophical pragmatism of William James, John Dewey and others with a review of Pragmatic Naturalism, an Introduction by S. Morris Eames, with a special focus on the affinity between pragmatism and evolutionary theory.

In this episode I look at the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, the goddess Ananke, the biases of scholars, mythology, and determinism in John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy.

In this episode I examine Philip Wheelwright's Heraclitus, in particular the study of Heraclitus as a pluralist opposed to the monism of Parmenides.

In this episode I look at the beginning of the question of Being in Martin Heidegger's The Beginning of Western Philosophy. I spend the most time in the middle section of the book, which provides a condensed and comprehensible overview of Heidegger's project and his search for the origins of Western philosophy in the pre-Socratic Greek thinkers such as Anaximander.

In this episode I review and respond to Elements of Pantheism by Paul Harrison. I include my comments and questions regarding Reality, Matter, the Universe, Nature, and Justice.

In this episode I look at Nietzsche's early examination of the Pre-Socratic philosophers, with a focus on Anaximander, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. The concepts of being and becoming, and the differences among philosophers regarding these concepts, are addressed.

In this episode I examine Ancient Greek concepts such as aidos, sebas, eulabeia, nomos, and themis through Kerenyi's ground-breaking Religion of the Greeks and Romans. I also examine the ancient acceptance of death, in the context of our own modern hostility to human mortality.

In this episode I examine some of the qualities of polytheism, with a particular focus on Athena as presented by Walter Burkert in his classic treatise, Greek Religion.

In this episode I look at Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae, in particular her deep dive into Apollo and Dionysus as archetypal social drives. More at natureandthenation.com