Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 44

MODERN AGE

WINTER 2016

in Nisbet's phrase, a noble expediency as he sought to articulate
reasonable policies and promote responsible action. Such an
approach to Burke, which perhaps appears to be superficial, may
actually lead us to a level far more profound that we might imagine, for as Weaver writes, "The study and appreciation of a lost
cause have some effect of turning history into philosophy."18

3
4
5

Robert Nisbet, Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1982), 3. Hereafter cited as PPD. For a more systematic discussion of Burke and
conservatism, see Nisbet's Conservatism: Dream and Reality (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001), esp. 19ff.
Concerning the opponents in this battle, while Nisbet finds the activities of the proabortion forces "repugnant," he believes that "it does not present the danger to the
social fabric and to individual liberty that is posed by the ranks of the aggressive antiabortionists. In denying the right of the woman or her family to terminate pregnancy,
these soldiers of righteousness strike at the very heart of both family and individual
rights" (PPD, 5).
See Josef Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1966), 3-40.
Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana (Chicago: Henry Regnery,
1953). Hereafter cited as CM.
One source worth considering in relation to this question is Edward Shils's discussion
of the distinction between "tradition" and "traditionalism." See "Tradition and Liberty: Antinomy and Interdependence," in Edward Shils, The Virtue of Civility, ed. Steven
Grosby, (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1997), 103-22, especially 114-19. Also worth reflecting on is Eric Voegelin's discussion of "second reality," the ideological substitution of a
truncated vision of reality for reality itself, that one accepts as a foundation for action.
Voegelin argues in "The Equivalences of Experience and Symbolization in History" that
reality is found in the psyche's encounter with the "out there" and can never be totally
captured in concepts or definitions (see The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, vol. 12, Published Essays, 1966-1985 [Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990], 115-33).
Rather, symbols can point to reality, which must then be experienced by each individual in their own search. Some students of Voegelin believe that "second reality" has
to do with the content of one's view of the world, but I think any view can be hardened
into "second reality" if one merely accepts the account of another rather than conducting one's own investigation. This view, of course, may present problems for any effort
to elevate prescription into a foundational epistemological principle.
See Francis Graham Wilson, Political Philosophy and Cultural Renewal, eds., H. Lee Cheek
Jr. et al. (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001), 59, 72, 98-100, and 157.

Modern Age - Winter 2016

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