Abstract
The leading political philosophical question of the eighties — does democracy have foundations? — may not be the leading plitical philosophical question of the nineties. But it remains critical in that it compels an ongoing debate about the meaning of democracy itself. Whatever the merit of foundationalist approaches, they tend to mandate a construction of democracy that favors natural liberty and absolute rights. I wish here not only to ask whether democracy has foundations, but what sort of democracy it is that can do without foundations or, indeed, repudiates foundations precisely because of what it requires politically.
An earlier version of this essay was prepared for the International Meeting of the Conference for the Study of Political Thought at Yale University, April, 1993.
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Benjamin R. Barber, Strong Democracy, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) pp. 120–121.
William James, Pragmatism and the Meaning of Truth, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), p. 31
Ibid., p. 44.
John Dewey, The Quest for Certainty, p. 6.
Ibid., pp. 7, 17.
Betrand Russell, »The Study of Mathematics«, in Mysticism and Logic, (Doubleday, Anchor, 1957), pp. 57–58.
Peirce (in Scheffler), p. 57. Michael Oakeshott’s imagery is equally captivating: for him too, we are sailors »on a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour nor shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel…« Rationalism in Politics (New York: Basic Books, 1962), p. 133.
Cited by H. Arendt, On Revolution, p. 239. See Robert Michels, Political Parties.
Letter to John Adams, August 1, 1816; note that his was later in his life when some claim his revolutionary ardor had cooled!
Letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816.
Letter to Colonel William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787.
»I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind… We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.« Letter to Kercheval.
Letter to James Madison, 1789.
As Jefferson suggested in his Letter to James Madison of January 30, 1787.
»Paradoxical as it may sound,« wrote Arendt, »it was in fact under the impact of the Revolution that the Revolutionary spirit in this country began to wither away, and it was the Constitution itself, this greatest achievement of the American people, which eventually cheated them of their proudest possession.« On Revolution, p. 242.
Letter to Joseph Cabell, February 12, 1815.
Michael Oakeshott, Ibid., p. 32.
In The Conquest of Politics, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).
Barber, The Conquest of Politics, p. 211.
James, Pragmatism and the Meaning of Truth, ibid., p. 31–32. Emphasis added.
Letter to Major John Cartwright, June 25, 1824.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland
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Barber, B.R. (1993). Foundationalism and Democracy. In: Gerhardt, V., Ottmann, H., Thompson, M.P. (eds) Politisches Denken Jahrbuch 1993. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-03503-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-03503-5_4
Publisher Name: J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart
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