Ideas Have ConsequencesA foundational text of the modern conservative movement, this 1948 philosophical treatise argues the decline of Western civilization and offers a remedy. Originally published in 1948, at the height of post–World War II optimism and confidence in collective security, Ideas Have Consequences uses “words hard as cannonballs” to present an unsparing diagnosis of the ills of the modern age. Widely read and debated at the time of its first publication, the book is now seen as one of the foundational texts of the modern conservative movement. In its pages, Richard M. Weaver argues that the decline of Western civilization resulted from the rising acceptance of relativism over absolute reality. In spite of increased knowledge, this retreat from the realist intellectual tradition has weakened the Western capacity to reason, with catastrophic consequences for social order and individual rights. But Weaver also offers a realistic remedy. These difficulties are the product not of necessity, but of intelligent choice. And, today, as decades ago, the remedy lies in the renewed acceptance of absolute reality and the recognition that ideas—like actions—have consequences. This expanded edition of the classic work contains a foreword by New Criterion editor Roger Kimball that offers insight into the rich intellectual and historical contexts of Weaver and his work and an afterword by Ted J. Smith III that relates the remarkable story of the book’s writing and publication. Praise for Ideas Have Consequences “A profound diagnosis of the sickness of our culture.” —Reinhold Niebuhr “Brilliantly written, daring, and radical. . . . It will shock, and philosophical shock is the beginning of wisdom.” —Paul Tillich “This deeply prophetic book not only launched the renaissance of philosophical conservatism in this country, but in the process gave us an armory of insights into the diseases besetting the national community that is as timely today as when it first appeared. [This] is one of the few authentic classics in the American political tradition.” —Robert Nisbet |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Unsentimental Sentiment | 17 |
2 Distinction and Hierarchy | 32 |
3 Fragmentation and Obsession | 48 |
4 Egotism in Work and Art | 64 |
5 The Great Stereopticon | 84 |
6 The SpoiledChild Psychology | 103 |
7 The Last Metaphysical Right | 117 |
8 The Power of the Word | 134 |
9 Piety and Justice | 153 |
How Ideas Have Consequences Came to Be Written By Ted J Smith III | 169 |
Acknowledgments | 193 |
Notes | 195 |
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Common terms and phrases
accept Allen Tate becomes beginning belief bourgeois century Chicago Press Records civilization Cleanth Brooks comfort concept Couch course culture democracy discipline doctrine economic effort egotism egotistic empiricism equality existence expression fact feeling Folder freedom Henry James’s Hermann Rauschning hierarchy human ideal Ideas Have Consequences individual intellectual jazz John Crowe Ransom kind knowledge labor language Letter from Richard liberal living Located in Box look lost man’s material matter means metaphysical metaphysical dream mind modern moral nature newspapers observation one’s organization persons philosophic piety Plato political present private property question quoted by permission rational reality realize reason regard Richard Weaver S. I. Hayakawa seems semanticists sense sentiment Sewanee Review significance social society Southern spirit Stereopticon substance symbolism taught teleology things thought tion truth turn University of Chicago values virtue wish words