The Raison d'État, for this journal (blog) is to finally get out on paper, so to speak, thoughts I’ve slowly developed over 30 years from sundry readings on the topics of political philosophy, political theory and legal theory.  There are clear and important distinctions among these fields that I’ll return to as warranted in later posts.  Here the central question guiding this journal is whether there is something we can learn from our ancient Greek and Roman ancestors that may help us understand our contemporary ethical-political problems?  Can Ancient Greece and Rome be made to speak to and engage with contemporary fashionable opinion?  And, of course, given this opinion, is transhistorical thought, or philosophy even possible?  In this regard, have the ancients been unfairly treated, misunderstood or even abused by medieval, enlightenment and contemporary thinkers or approaches? On the other hand, for example, maybe our medieval scholastics et. al.  understood the ancients correctly, and rightly improved upon them.  Can we entertain the thought that maybe it was the medievalists “who got it right” and built upon ancient doctrines in a manner faithful to ancient first principles.  And on this hypothesis perhaps it is the Enlightenment and contemporary thinkers, flush with the confidence instilled by modern science, who unfairly dismiss the medievalists and the ancients and therewith dismiss certain highly instructive insights into our shared human condition.  Lots of food for thought, questions and alternative combinations here.     

Behind what might appear to be a hoary withered academic exercise, however, lies a titanic struggle that, whether we understand its genesis or not, has a decisive impact on  how  we think of ourselves (in the West) and, to a certain extent, define the policies and laws we live under.  As a practicing attorney I live under a certain set of presumptions about all persons of age that the law takes as bedrock first principles of social order.  And, in my more reflective moments, when trying to follow these presumptions up to their origin the trail vanishes like a will-o-the-wisp into the vague expressions like: custom, culture or sound public policy.  Yet, at the level of philosophic debate these presumptions are the central issue.  And the results of this struggle, so to speak, define our political and legal theory.   

Nonetheless, in my unsystematic and desultory reading over the past 30 years, I have  come to the realization that there is a striking commonality among the most influential of our interlocutors.  That common thread lies in their insistence that to understand our political problem, or perhaps more accurately, to understand our self-appraisals that are a contributing factor to our political problems, we must go to the roots and first principles of western political thought. And what this means is a return to the Ancient Greeks and Romans.  This return is complicated by a millennia of intermediaries, some better or worse.  To struggle our way out from “the cave” of culture, history and opinion we must set aside or even refute received opinions, theories and assumptions.  We must confront the ancients without intermediaries and most importantly in their own language.  We must try to understand the ancients in the way they understood themselves such that their doctrines are not unduly influenced or muted by received opinion.  Once a solid handle on the classic doctrines is obtained, we may then follow the arc across the centuries toward the political and legal theory of western common law countries.  In this case, for this student, this means a confrontation with American constitutionalism.       

So I’ve decided to humbly take up the challenge.  What results therefrom I do not know.  It is a venture free from secondary pecuniary gain.   For me personally, this venture involves overcoming the barriers of language.  Luckily, given the advantages afforded by modern day communication and computing, I will undertake to learn both Ancient Greek and Latin, and then move on to other necessary languages as I move forward.  This journal is a way to document my adventure “warts and all”, a travel journal of sorts.  I'll document the highs and lows always focusing on the conversation.  Most importantly, I seek to place authorities, renowned philosophers and other notables under strict scrutiny review and disclose my findings.  This venture is the essence of life, this is my Sublime Mission.