Sublime

Modern liberalism has adopted the Jacobin spirit. Having dispensed with traditional moral norms, liberals have transformed the severe quality of conscience into a playpen of desire. Hav­ing denied a religious foundation for human rights, they have left individuals vulnerable to the despotic whims of the secular state. This outcome was predicted by

Following the 20th-century philosopher Michael Oakeshott, though, we might conclude that arguments for the instrumentally based curricula of today’s commentators are misplaced. For Oakeshott, the subjects of the curriculum—history, mathematics, science, and so on—offer ways of capturing and understanding the world; they are a precious legacy passed

This

and present danger to the future of liberty.

By abolishing the traditional hierarchical distinction between the sacred and the secular,