Genovese

Michael Hoover hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Thu Oct 19 15:25:35 PDT 2000



> >Russell Kirk
>
> How seriously is he taken outside the hardcore conservative camp? Do
> mainstream political science types read him? Back in my Party of the
> Right days he was revered almost as a prophet.
> Doug

I don't recall many - if any - reading lists that included RK. Neo & Paleo Cons, no doubt, attribute this to liberal/left (no distinction to be had here) domination of US poli sci. Fact of matter is that mainstream US discipline (which may be smidgeon to left of increasingly rightist center) is essentially empirical. Not much interest in history of any political thought and normative theory that has character of literary analysis: examining what thinkers said, how they developed/ justified their views, intellectual context in which they worked. Much of what now constititues "politcal theory" is called formal political theory that draws upon economic theory in building models based on procedural rules about rationally self-interested behavior of individuals.

Re. conservative thought and poli sci people, there are number of (Leo) Straussians around, there's an Eric Vogelin Society that has APSA adherents. Undergrad theory courses generally include Edmund Burke (though I have hunch that he may not always be identitied as Whig, not Tory, that he was). Maybe Disraeli. In my case, I had communal conservative prof who thought it good idea that I read Strauss, Vogelin, Kirk, Robert Nisbet, among others. Michael Hoover



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