The purpose of this blog will be to look at topics which meet at the intersection of philosophy and politics. In the order of human affairs, philosophy is undoubtedly a nobler discipline than politics, but politics--and political theory--offer a unique vantage point from which to engage in philosophy. The true philosopher seeks to understand the harmony and ordering of reality so that he may live well by recreating this order in his life and actions. In this light, political thought becomes a type of philosophical speculation. The political is a realm of life where man creates harmony and instantiates values on a large scale, which is similar to what the philosopher does on a small scale. Thus, like Plato's Republic, this blog offers a chance to do philosophy by thinking through political topics. Philosophy, of course, is the discipline that has every other discipline and phenomena as its subject matter, and political science has the organization of the entire of humanity's pubic life as its subject matter. So don't be surprised if from time to time this blog deals with topics that seems to fall outside the intersection of philosophy and politics.
The name of this blog refers to Cato the Younger, a Roman statesman in the time of the late Republic. Cato was at once a philosopher, in the Stoic tradition, and a politician. Not only did Cato's Stoicism influence his politics, it seems that the values which completely shaped the course of his life and political career were grounded in Stoic principles.
Cato was notoriously conservative (or obstinately stubborn, depending on your point of view). This blog will take an unabashedly conservative viewpoint. This space of the intellectual spectrum seems lacking in contemporary America, where conservatives are primarily one of three things: 1) Libertarians, 2) Businessmen, or 3) Religious fundamentalists. Anyone familiar with the broader conservative tradition will realize that this is an impoverished selection of choices. One of the goals of this blog will be to examine the principles behind a more traditional type of conservatism.
-Cato the Youngest
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