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CATEGORY: PHILOSOPHY (5 MIN)

Fukuyama, Strauss, and the “Pre-Modern Ideal”

After winning a huge victory in the 2024 elections, the American right has a chance to set a vision for the nation. But since conservatives honor free and fair debate, there has been much dialogue over what that vision should look like. Thinkers and politicians continue to work through the scholarship of conservative academics to determine what America should look like as it moves forward in the 21^st century.

For First Things, R.R. Reno discusses the work of two major thinkers: Francis Fukuyama and Leo Strauss. Fukuyama used a 1940s lecture from Strauss to criticize postliberal thinkers on the right in a recent article, but Reno believes that Fukuyama’s analysis is wrong. Reno says that Strauss was focused on retaining the “tradition of truth” that drew on metaphysical reality to combat nihilism, which had permeated the German academy before the Second World War.

Reno argues from Strauss’s work that all the achievements of the modern West will not long endure without foundation in the “pre-modern ideal.” This “classical ideal of humanity” transcends surface-level thinking, according to Reno, and it focuses on what some might see as “illiberal” concepts: “the authority of human nature, for example, and the authority of God.”

Reno also urges readers (including Fukuyama) to fight back against the oppressive academic culture that has illiberally forbidden discussion of the “pre-modern ideal.”

What do you think? Read Reno’s piece here to learn more.

Weekly Poll

Who better explains today’s political crisis: Francis Fukuyama or Leo Strauss?

[A] Fukuyama: liberal democracy has essentially won
[B] Strauss: we still need classical wisdom to guide us
[C] Unsure

RESULTS: 6/12/2025

Is America ready to move past guilt and reclaim pride in Western civilization?

[A] Yes -- It's time to stand tall again | 71.2%
[B] No -- We still have wrongs to reckon with | 3.8%
[C] Unsure -- The debate isn't so simple | 25%
 

CATEGORY: PHILOSOPHY (15 MIN)

What Makes a “Magnanimous Nation?”

At a time (like many others in world history) when conflict and strife reign over many nations, America has an opportunity to set an example in great leadership. The Founders studied much about the most famous statesmen of the biblical, ancient, and medieval eras—ISI President Johnny Burtka released a book this year called Gateway to Statesmanship on those leaders and their modern counterparts.

But what is necessary to bring about such leadership? In an excerpt reprinted in The American Mind from his new book Prophetic Statesmanship: Harry Jaffa, Abraham Lincoln, and the Gettysburg Address, Edward J. Erler discusses Jaffa’s thoughts on President Lincoln’s conception of leadership and statesmanship.

Erler argues from Jaffa’s work (citing Lincoln) that ambition is a “neutral” tool to be taken up by people in power—and that in the hands of someone who would serve “just ends by enlarging freedom for all,” it could do great good. Erler says this person, per Jaffa and Lincoln, would be one who could “forgo the honors of his countrymen.” Erler compares this individual to the “great-souled man” from the work of Aristotle.

Erler also talks about the trait of magnanimity, which places those who wield it in the place of a “benefactor, not a servant.” He lays out Jaffa’s argument that a country itself may be magnanimous, acquiring a “consciousness of superiority which is superiority in the ability to benefit others.” And Erler then also turns to Leo Strauss, arguing that a nation that provides “equality of opportunity” creates the most fertile soil for getting those with great souls into government.

Read more of Erler’s work here.