Browsing by Subject "Tocqueville"
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Item Liberal theology in the age of equality : Tocqueville and the Enlightenment on faith, freedom, and the human soul(2010-12) Herold, Aaron Louis; Pangle, Thomas L.; Muirhead, Russell; Owen, J. Judd; Pangle, Lorraine; Stauffer, Devin; Tulis, JeffreyThe increasing importance of religious and moral issues in American politics makes salient once again the question of the relationship between religion and democracy. The United States is in the midst of a debate pitting secularists and those who adapt their faith to progressive outlooks against conservatives who see a need to ground liberal-democracy in something Biblical. Taking up this debate, I argue that the viewpoints of both secular progressives and religious conservatives suffer from key oversights. While the former fail to notice that their commitment to toleration rests on certain absolute claims, the latter overlook the extent to which religion has been transformed and liberalized. Seeking a more nuanced version of this debate, I compare the Enlightenment’s case for toleration to Tocqueville’s claim that democracy requires religion for moral support. Examining Locke and Spinoza, I argue that the Enlightenment sought to achieve freedom, prosperity, and a rich cultural and intellectual life through the weakening or liberalization of religious belief. I then turn to Tocqueville’s friendly critique of the Enlightenment and try to elucidate his solution for preserving, in times of liberalism and equality, the great human devotions which he saw as inextricably linked to religion. I conclude that that by describing a civil religion capacious enough to permit tolerance but substantive enough to encourage real devotion, Tocqueville gives us a kind of moderate politics seldom found in today’s debates.Item Tocqueville on doubt and the demands of democratic citizenship(2015-12) Arellano, Alec; Tulis, Jeffrey; Pangle, Thomas LTocqueville’s view of the relationship of doubt to democracy is an important and underexplored aspect of Democracy in America. Illuminating it not only deepens our grasp of his thought, but also adds to broader theoretical debates about political psychology. I deepen our understanding of this theme by elaborating why exactly the democratic social state produces in people the sort of skeptical doubt characteristic of the Cartesian approach to philosophy. I also enumerate what factors in the democratic social state and in human nature set a boundary on the extent to which the exertions of the individual intellect can achieve knowledge. Additionally I draw together different sections of Democracy in America to show how democratic people’s tendency toward this kind of thinking poses serious risks for self-government if left unmediated. Religion, which Tocqueville holds out as the key to restraining that doubt, has seen its authority wane in the time since he wrote. Nonetheless, I argue that other remarks Tocqueville makes in Democracy in America suggest that a robust conception of individual rights can provide a new source of intellectual authority for political and moral debate that is resistant to doubt’s corrosive power.Item A Tocquevillean analysis of the democratic peace research program and modern liberal foreign policy(2012-05) Grinney, Matthew Jay; Pangle, Thomas L.; Trubowitz, PeterAlexis de Tocqueville is widely hailed as one of the most insightful students of democracy and as one of the most perceptive observers of America. While this high praise is fully deserved, Tocqueville was more than simply the author of Democracy in America. Indeed, he completed the journey that inspired his seminal work before he was out of his twenties. The remainder of his life was devoted to the practice of politics. Both as an involved citizen and as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Tocqueville researched and wrote extensively on French foreign policy. His most notable works are several reports endorsing French colonial projects in Algeria and articles advocating for the emancipation of slavery in the French Caribbean colonies. In this essay I argue that one cannot truly understand Tocqueville the student without analyzing Tocqueville the politician. Approaching his career as a consistent whole, rather than two distinct and incongruous parts, opens new avenues of investigation into his works. First, his incisive examination and critique of the distinct mildness engendered by equality of conditions in America helps fill several theoretical gaps in the democratic peace research program. Second, his arguments in support of both French imperial enterprises as well as the emancipation of slaves reveals that his diplomatic career was animated above all by the desire to forestall the further proliferation of this democratic mildness, which he viewed as one of democracy’s most dangerous vices. Examining his foreign policy positions in light of the lessons he learned in writing Democracy in America is the only way to discover the consistent goal of his life—namely, to educate and guide the future generations of democracy—and thus to understand Tocqueville as he understood himself.