Sublime

Similar closed circles occur when political leaders create public policy based on opinion polls. “Is it wise to have large government agencies committed to making a rapidly growing number of high-leverage mortgage loans?” The question is un-decidable within the logic of popular opinion and election campaigns. Only by looking carefully at the past a

his anecdote about the slave and the chamber pot suggests, characteristically, that the best response to this world of constant political danger is constant individual vigilance, the display of personal integrity, and loyalty to one’s own social group—not explicit resistance to the regime.

Les hommes politiques font l’histoire tandis que les intellectuels essaient de la penser.

A modest and non-utopian proposal would be to greatly enhance the opportunities for politicians to learn about the past, present and future, helping them to be better vehicles for the imagination of their societies as well as to better address the problems of today.

The rise of China has been accompanied by a palpable need to understand the significance of this ascendance and project a vision of the world – a universalism – that does not reproduce the injustices of the earlier orders, whether under the empires or modern imperialism.

L’objectif d’un intellectuel ne peut être autre que la recherche de la vérité. Mais celle-ci est toujours difficile à atteindre, fragile et partielle.

Mais l’heure de notre dernier cours vient de sonner, celui sur la politique. Nous approfondirons la question suivante : Les philosophes doivent-ils s’impliquer dans la société et essayer de la transformer ? Nous irons donc à la rencontre des cyniques, qui proposent une solution plutôt radicale pour soigner la société.

Recentrant son propos sur le politique, il s’agit de démontrer que la meilleure organisation publique est celle qui laisse à chacun la liberté de croire, de penser et de s’exprimer.