Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, NEH. 2007: Harvey Mansfield年過九旬的曼斯菲爾德，《理性控制的興衰The Rise and Fall of Rational Control:》2026 -- “How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science”

 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, NEH. 2007: Harvey Mansfield年過九旬的曼斯菲爾德，《理性控制的興衰The Rise and Fall of Rational Control:》2026 -- “How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science”

「哈維·曼斯菲爾德是哈佛的瑰寶，是自由主義自滿情緒的一劑良藥。」——麥可·桑德爾

哈維·C·曼斯菲爾德在哈佛大學開設的傳奇政治哲學課程，幾十年來一直深受學生喜愛，影響了幾代人的公共思想。

如今已年過九旬的曼斯菲爾德，在其著作《理性控制的興衰》中，精闢地概括了這門課程的精髓：

本書追溯了現代政治哲學的誕生歷程，從尼科洛·馬基雅維利及其關於操縱客觀世界事實以服務於自身利益的必要性——他稱之為「理性控制」——開始。

這本書追溯了這一思想的演變——從霍布斯、洛克和盧梭到康德、馬克思、黑格爾和尼采——最終落腳於後現代主義晦澀而主觀的沙漠。

現在是時候重新審視理性了嗎？現代人，該何去何從？

「哈維·曼斯菲爾德是一位毫不畏懼的社會評論家，也是一位傑出的教師，培養了一代又一代有影響力的學生。」——弗朗西斯·福山

“Harvey Mansfield is a Harvard treasure, a one-man antidote to liberal complacency.” – Michael J. Sandel

Taught for decades to rapt classrooms, Harvey C. Mansfield’s legendary Harvard University course on political philosophy has informed and influenced generations of public thought.

Now in his nineties, Mansfield captures the essence of his course in The Rise and Fall of Rational Control:

A history of the birth of modern political philosophy, beginning with Niccolò Machiavelli and the imperative to manipulate the brute facts of the world in service of interests—something he calls “rational control.”

The book traces the evolution of this idea—from Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau to Kant, Marx, Hegel, and Nietzsche—landing at last in the murky, subjective desert of postmodernism.

Is it time to revisit reason? Which way, modern man?

“An unblinkingly courageous social commentator, Harvey Mansfield is a superb teacher who has fostered a generation of influential students.” – Francis Fukuyama

Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities

The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, established by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1972, is the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. The lectureship recognizes an individual who has made significant scholarly contributions in the humanities and who has the ability to communicate the knowledge and wisdom of the humanities in a broadly appealing way. The lecturer is chosen each year by the National Council on the Humanities, a board of twenty-six citizens nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate.

The Jefferson Lecture is held in Washington, typically in conjunction with the spring meeting of the National Council. The lecturer receives an honorarium of $10,000.

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1972: Lionel Trilling -- "Mind in the Modern World"

1973: Erik Erikson -- "Dimensions of a New Identity"

1974: Robert Penn Warren -- "Poetry and Democracy"

1975: Paul A. Freund -- "Liberty: The Great Disorder of Speech"

1976: John Hope Franklin -- "Racial Equality in America"

1977: Saul Bellow -- "The Writer and His Country Look Each Other Over"

1978: C. Vann Woodward -- "The European Vision of America"

1979: Edward Shils -- "Render Unto Caesar: Government, Society, and Universities in their Reciprocal Rights and Duties"

1980: Barbara Tuchman -- "Mankind's Better Moments"

1981: Gerald Holton -- "Where is Science Taking Us?"

1982: Emily T. Vermeule -- "Greeks and Barbarians: The Classical Experience in the Larger World"

1983: Jaroslav Pelikan -- "The Vindication of Tradition"

1984: Sidney Hook -- "Education in Defense of a Free Society"

1985: Cleanth Brooks -- "Literature and Technology"

1986: Leszek Kolakowski -- "The Idolatry of Politics"

1987: Forrest McDonald -- "The Intellectual World of the Founding Fathers"

1988: Robert Nisbet -- "The Present Age"

1989: Walker Percy -- "The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind"

1990: Bernard Lewis -- "Western Civilization: A View from the East"

1991: Gertrude Himmelfarb -- "Of Heroes, Villains and Valets"

1992: Bernard Knox -- "The Oldest Dead White European Males"

1993: Robert Conquest -- "History, Humanity and Truth"

1994: Gwendolyn Brooks -- "Family Pictures"

1995: Vincent Scully -- "The Architecture of Community"

1996: Toni Morrison -- "The Future of Time"

1997: Stephen Toulmin -- "A Dissenter's Story"

1998: Bernard Bailyn -- "To Begin the World Anew: Politics and the Creative Imagination"

1999: Caroline Walker Bynum -- "Shape and History: Metamorphosis in the Western Tradition"

2000: James M. McPherson -- "'For a Vast Future Also': Lincoln and the Millennium"

2001: Arthur Miller -- "On Politics and the Art of Acting"

2002: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- "Mr. Jefferson and the Trials of Phillis Wheatley"

2003: David McCullough -- "The Course of Human Events"

2004: Helen Vendler -- "The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar"

2005: Donald Kagan -- "In Defense of History"

2006: Tom Wolfe -- "The Human Beast"

2007: Harvey Mansfield -- “How to Understand Politics:
What the Humanities Can Say to Science”

2008: John Updike -- “The Clarity of Things:
What Is American about American Art”

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