Recently, in a two-part feature for The American Mind, Yoram Hazony argues “Conservative Rationalism has Failed” (here and here). While he aims particularly at Catholic and Straussian natural law approaches, he sweeps within these categories all of the broader natural law and natural right views articulated since the early modern era in the West.
The alternative and presumably more authentic vision of conservativism that Hazony pits against conservative rationalism is one based in "tradition," although not exactly. Seeking to avoid obvious objections to blind traditionalism, Hazony grounds tradition in empiricism. Yet even there his argument has tensions. In recognizing the need to make judgments regarding which tradition might be good and which tradition might be bad, Hazony makes implicit recourse to Biblical a prioris, such as the imago dei. While I agree with Hazony's broad conclusion that the American project doesn't work when it is severed from its religious roots, the argumentative route he takes to support that conclusion actually undercuts the faiths he seeks to foster.
Read Full Article »