Conservative Scholarship and the Problem of Myth
On the face of things, conservatism and historical scholarship would appear to be antithetical ideals. A viable social order seems to require, among its other adhesives, a…
Just Making an Inventory
Introduction: From Inventory to Choice "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -Winston…
In Search of the American Myth
American history needs to be seen in the context of a larger drama. But there is sharp disagreement over the way we choose to represent that relationship.…
Recovering Our Legacy: The Many Uses of the American Past
We Americans need to know our history. And we need to know it far better than we have in the past. We are not a people bound…
Philosophizing among Refugee Students in the High School ELL Classroom
Introduction: Mythic Consciousness and Philosophy Philosophy is commonly misunderstood as one subject among many that you might take up in school; it is often confounded with whatever…
Two Kinds of Sacrifice: René Girard’s Analysis of Scapegoating
Mimesis and Scapegoating Humans are intensely mimetic. We learn to talk, walk, and nearly everything else by imitation. But because we also imitate each other’s desires, other…
Review of Plato’s Mythoi: The Political Soul’s Drama Beyond
Plato’s Mythoi: The Political Soul’s Drama Beyond. Donald H. Roy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. In Plato’s Mythoi, the Political Soul’s Drama Beyond, Donald H. Roy…
Cosmological Myth and Origins of Political Science
Myths were the common symbolic language of the members of ancient communities. They were not merely tales, but served ancient men as tools by which they interpreted…
Myth and Misunderstandings
I especially want to draw your attention to the problem that the gods are intracosmic. There is no such thing as a world-transcendent God in any cosmological…
Voegelin’s Question of the Ground
Voegelin's notion of the differentiation of consciousness may be clarified by setting it off against what he considers to be the foundational structure of consciousness that does…