Bringing a different perspective to campus, Patrick Deneen will be speaking about Leo Strauss at 8 p.m. on April 23.
Deneen is the David A. Potenziani Memorial Associate Professor of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame University. He is a regular author for both First Things magazine and the American Conservative.
“Patrick Deneen cherishes the classical conception of political community or the polis,” Assistant Professor of History and Symposium faculty adviser Matthew Gaetano said. “He believes that Aristotle’s perspective on politics provides what is necessary for human flourishing. Like many at Hillsdale, he sees our current social and economic structures as inimical to that kind of community and therefore to happiness itself. Deneen challenges us at Hillsdale by asking about whether deeply-held American beliefs like contract theory or natural rights may be a part of explaining why we are facing the problems of our own time.”
The invitation to come speak at Hillsdale was extended after some students attended an Edith Stein conference at Notre Dame and met Deneen there. Senior Katie Summa, Symposium treasurer, was one of those students.
“Basically, I read his article in First Things a few years ago, and I was at the Edith Stein conference in February,” Summa said. “He gave this beautiful talk about libraries as temples of knowledge, and it was very beautiful. And he’s involved in ISI, and so I went up and talked with him afterwards, and emailed him and invited him to come, and he was very willing.”
Junior Mattie VanderBleek, a double major in politics and history, also met Deneen at Notre Dame after reading much of his work.
“I like that he’s engaging in a debate that a lot of people don’t want to have,” VanderBleek said. “I think he’s doing it seriously. He entertains the question that we might be entering into a postliberal society. He entertains the possibility that liberalism has run its course. If that is the case, we need to be prepared to revisit the theoretical grounding of liberal political theory.”
In his article titled “Unsustainable Liberalism” he said, “Thus the liberal experiment contradicts itself, and a liberal society will inevitably become ‘postliberal.’ The postliberal condition can retain many aspects that are regarded as liberalism’s triumphs—equal dignity of persons, in particular—while envisioning an alternative understanding of the human person, human community, politics, and the relationship of the cities of Man to the city of God.”
Deneen has already been in discourse with Hillsdale, as Associate Professor of Philosophy Nathan Schlueter has written responses to some of Deneen’s articles.
“He’ll be speaking on Leo Strauss,” Symposium president senior Devin Creed said. “He definitely has a different perspective than everyone in our politics department.”
Besides asking difficult but necessary questions about politics, modern liberalism, and constitutionalism, Deneen has also written a critique of the great books tradition in his article “Against Great Books,” in First Things magazine.
Symposium officer junior Chris McCaffery said this perspective is one of the things that make his presence on campus valuable.
“Myself and the other officers of the Symposium, think, from reading his published writings and interacting with him, that he has an interesting perspective on America’s political order and politics in general,” McCaffery said. “We are excited to have him on campus.”
