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Originally posted by dtheriault Where are the modern day Rousseau’s, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Machiavelli, Edmund Burke, and Plato(s)?
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They're few, far between, and hard to find because they get shouted down by the little thinkers with big lungs. Here's a few I've come across:
Leo Strauss The godfather of the neoconservative movement. His work was taken from theory to policy by
Irving Kristol. While I repudiate and despise everything that neoconservatism stands for, that makes it no less a legitimate political philosophy. Worth investigating and reading if only for the sense of "there but for the grace of God go I."
Gary Hart has had his share of PR problems (see: 1998, blonde, not wife, lap), but his "Restoration of the Republic" is a masterwork and a truly inspiring piece of political philosophy.
David C. Korten is an excellent conservative social philosopher with a strong anticorporate message. His "When Corporations Rule the World" is a rhetorical tour de force. If I could, I'd make it required reading for every Political Science major in every university in America.
Noam Chomsky is simply indispensable. I need to go pick up his new one, "Toward a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There"
There are others as well - some folks swear by
Ayn Rand (I don't), there are quite a few who read
Gore Vidal, and so on and so forth. General tip: avoid the talking heads and go for the heavy scholarly stuff. Actually, college bookstores are great places to get the good stuff as well as pointers towards more.
P.S. I'm a highlander - at least, I'm descended from them. Is it ok if I learn the swordfighting stuff? I hope so, otherwise I've wasted several good years of my life.