Comments on: Searching for a Usable Past http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/06/searching-for-a-usable-past/ Place. Limits. Liberty. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:09:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Kenneth McIntyre http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/06/searching-for-a-usable-past/#comment-4651 Kenneth McIntyre Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:59:57 +0000 http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=4110#comment-4651 Very good stuff as always, Caleb. In a review of a book by Walter Lippmann, Oakeshott observed that "when Mr. Lippmann says that the founders of our free institutions were adherents of the philosophy of natural law, and that 'the free political institutions of the Western world were conceived and established' by men who held certain abstract beliefs, he speaks with the shortened perspective of an American way of thinking in which a manner of conducting affairs is inconceivable without an architect and without a premeditated 'dedication to a proposition'. But the fact is that nobody ever 'founded' these institutions. They are the product of innumerable human choices, over long stretches of time, but not of any human design." Very good stuff as always, Caleb. In a review of a book by Walter Lippmann, Oakeshott observed that “when Mr. Lippmann says that the founders of our free institutions were adherents of the philosophy of natural law, and that ‘the free political institutions of the Western world were conceived and established’ by men who held certain abstract beliefs, he speaks with the shortened perspective of an American way of thinking in which a manner of conducting affairs is inconceivable without an architect and without a premeditated ‘dedication to a proposition’. But the fact is that nobody ever ‘founded’ these institutions. They are the product of innumerable human choices, over long stretches of time, but not of any human design.”

]]> By: Bob Cheeks http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/06/searching-for-a-usable-past/#comment-4566 Bob Cheeks Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:54:56 +0000 http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=4110#comment-4566 "In doing so we trespass against the past, ending up haunted, as Quinney is, forever hearing sounds that come “from another land and another time.” Maybe that's all we can do, "trespass against the past," to look back and remember. And, if what is now is less than the past, we can only greive. "The return is precarious and the moment of grace is fleeting. Man cannot escape the finiteness of his particular existence." Eric Voegelin, On Schelling's Promethean Grace This was a very good review. “In doing so we trespass against the past, ending up haunted, as Quinney is, forever hearing sounds that come “from another land and another time.”

Maybe that’s all we can do, “trespass against the past,” to look back and remember. And, if what is now is less than the past, we can only greive.

“The return is precarious and the moment of grace is fleeting. Man cannot escape the finiteness of his particular existence.”
Eric Voegelin, On Schelling’s Promethean Grace

This was a very good review.

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