“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal…” (Matthew 6:19) I. Introduction Book VIII of Plato’s Republic presents a genealogy of political constitutions, outlining the process by which the ideal city, namely, aristocracy or kingship, degenerates first into timocracy, then into oligarchy,…
“I have called you friends…” (John 15:15) I. Introduction Among the many kinds of relations in which we find ourselves with other people, friendship seems to be one of the most familiar to us. After all, every man has some idea of what it is to be a friend, even if he himself may have…
Yes, you read that right. It is not an incoherent nor a rhetorical figure. It is not a self-accusation of contradiction of our non-liberal thinking either. It is pretty much the sum of our ideas, both in its basis and in its consequences, even when it puzzles everyone and makes them ask how someone can…