The Review of Politics articles

Recent articles from The Review of Politics

Dworkin's "Originalism": The Role of Intentions in Constitutional Interpretation.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2000... Ronald Dworkin's effort to distinguish multiple layers of "intention" that are embedded in the constitutional text has been taken as a substantial critique of traditional originalist jurisprudence. Dworkin has strongly argued that the constitutional text embodies abstract principles. These...

The Spirit of Separate Powers in Montesquieu.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2000... Montesquieu's theory of separate powers is elaborated in a discussion of the constitution of England in Book XI, chapter 6 of The Spirit of the Laws, which is by far the most discussed section of that work. Many commentators have interpreted the English system straightforwardly as...

The Reluctant Pluralism of J. G. Herder.
March 22, 2000... According to Isaiah Berlin's influential interpretation, J. G. Herder (1744-1803) deserves to be recognized as the first cultural pluralist in the West, and thus also as an important historical source of the pluralistic ideas espoused by increasing numbers of political theorists today....

Modernity, Freedom, and the State: Hegel's Concept of Patriotism.
March 22, 2000... Hegel's concept of patriotism helps specify an account of the just association of collective identity and state power. This concept has three main features. First, as a distinctly modem virtue, patriotism is limited by Hegel's account of modernity and its link to "subjective freedom." Second,...

The Enigma of Health: Hans-Georg Gadamer at 100.
March 22, 2000... As Gadamer, the "dean" of European philosophy, turns 100 this year, it behooves philosophers and reflective people in general to ponder the relation between philosophy and "good life," and more broadly between philosophy and natural health. As it happens, Gadamer himself has extensively...