The Review of Politics articles from March 2000

The Review of Politics archives from March 2000

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...

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 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...

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...

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....

Nietzsche's Friends and Enemies.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Just thirty years ago, R. J. Hollingdale began the introduction to one of his translations with the defensive question: "Why read a book by Nietzsche?" Now these same books are being simultaneously retranslated in several competing editions,...

POISONINGS.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Peter Gay: My German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 208. $22.50.) Peter Gay's memoir will be welcomed by all who have admired his work over the past forty years. From his...

PHYSICS, POLITICS, AND CULTURE.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Paul Lawrence Rose: Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project: A Study in German Culture. (Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1998. Pp. xix, 345. $35.00.) The author, Mitrani Professor of Jewish Studies and European History at...

BANALITY TRIVIALIZED.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Bernard J. Bergen: The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt and "The Final Solution." (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998. Pp. xvii, 169. $58.00. $22.95, paper.) In the 1990's ethnic cleansing and genocidal killings have...

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Frank Dik[ddot{o}]tter: Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects and Eugenics in China. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 226. $54.95.) Since the 1970s, the Chinese government has engaged in a widely...

ETHICS AS SCIENCE.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Larry Arnhart: Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 332. $74.50. $24.95, paper.) There are different ways to apply Darwin's ideas to topics having...

SACRED AND INVIOLABLE.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Michael J. Perry: The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, Pg. 157. $35.00. $19.95, paper.) In these "four inquiries" Michael Perry, holder of the University Distinguished Chair in Law at Wake...

WHAT IT REALLY MEANT.(Review)
March 22, 2000... David Lowenthal: No Liberty for License: The Forgotten Logic of the First Amendment. (Dallas: Spence Publishing Company, 1997. Pp. xxvi, 315. $27.95.) The great fault line in constitutional law lies between two very different...

JOINING UP.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Nancy L. Rosenblum: Membership and Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in America. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 439. $29.95. 18.95, paper.) This book is the product of a great deal of hard work, strong...

A TRIUMPH OF QUALITY.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Andrew L. Kaufman: Cardozo. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 731. $55.00.) Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870-1938) is on everyone's list of significant American judges. Yet we have had to wait until now to get a...

GAME THEORY.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Roger I. Abrams: Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 226, $27.95.) Having an economist review a book by a lawyer about baseball for The Review of Politics may appear incongruous....

DOGMATIC BORE.(Review)
March 22, 2000... David Fott: John Dewey: America's Philosopher of Democracy. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998. Pp. xii, 167. $58.00. $22.95, paper.) Pragmatism, as Tocquevile first suggested, is America's characteristic form of thought. John...

QUENTIN SKINNER'S "THIRD WAY".(Review)
March 22, 2000... Quentin Skinner: Liberty Before Liberalism. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 142. $34.95. $9.95, paper.) Quentin Skinner's inaugural lecture as Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge is a...

WHO SHOULD RULE IN ARISTOCRATIC SOCIETY?(Review)
March 22, 2000... Susan E. Gallagher: The Rule of the Rich: Adam Smith's Argument Against Political Power. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 141. $28.00.). This is a short book (105 pages of text) whose content is...

WHAT'S WRONG WITH DEMOCRACY.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Josiah Ober: Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 417. $35.00.) Political Dissent in Democratic Athens constitutes the second work in a...

A PLATO JUST LIKE US.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Gerald M. Mara: Socrates' Discursive Democracy: Logos and Ergon in Platonic Political Philosophy. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997. Pp. x, 324. $65.50. $21.95, paper.) The goal of this provocative and ambitious book...

MASKS OF SILENT SOCRATES.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Alexander Nehamas: The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 283. $29.95.) Alexander Nehamas sets himself the ambitious project of describing philosophy as a...

SCHOLARLY TRANSITIONS.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfer: Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 270. $49.00. $16.95, paper.) The collapse of...

EUROPE DE-CENTERED.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Andre Gunder Frank: ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Pp. Xxix, 416. $19.90, paper.) This is a provocative book, for it challenges the conventional wisdom in historiography and...

JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Richard K. Khuri. Freedom, Modernity, and Islam: Towards a Creative Synthesis. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998. Pp. xli, 384. $59.95.) Ever tried to persuade westerners, especially Americans, that Islam--of all...