Ideas Have Consequences

Ideas Have Consequences
Author: Richard M. Weaver
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2013-11-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 022609023X

A 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

The Ethics of Rhetoric

The Ethics of Rhetoric
Author: Richard M. Weaver
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1787204146

In The Ethics of Rhetoric, Richard M. Weaver evaluates the ethical and cultural role of rhetoric and its reflection on society. Weaver draws upon classical notions of rhetoric in Plato’s Phaedrus, and he examines the effectiveness and implications of the manipulation of language in the works of Lincoln, Burke, and Milton. In this collection of essays, Weaver examines how different types of rhetoric persuade, their varying levels of effectiveness and credibility, and how one’s manner of argumentation and style of persuasion are indicative of character. Ultimately, Weaver argues that the cultivation of pure language creates pure people. Initially published in 1953, The Ethics of Rhetoric remains timeless in its evaluation of rhetoric’s role in society.

Language is Sermonic

Language is Sermonic
Author: Richard L. Johannesen
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1985-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780807112212

Richard M. Weaver believed that “rhetoric at its truest seeks to perfect men by showing them better versions of themselves.” Language is Sermonic offers eight of Weaver’s best essays on the nature of traditional rhetoric and its role in shaping society. Arguing throughout the book against society’s reverence for relativism—and the consequential disregard for real values—this philosophical idealist uses his southern background and classical education as a backdrop for his scrutiny of our misuse of language. Weaver argues that rhetoric in its highest form involves making and persuasively presenting choice among goods. He condemns such supposedly value-free stances as cultural relativism, semantic positivism, scientism, and radical egalitarianism. Eschewing such peripheral aspect s of rhetoric as memorization and delivery, aspects too often now presented as the whole, Weaver deals instead with the substance of rhetoric. Ideas and the words used to express them—these are Weaver’s subjects. Anyone concerned about language—its use and abuse in contemporary society—will find Language is Sermonic provocative and rewarding. The editors’ critical interpretation of all of Weaver’s writing, as well as Ralph Eubanks’ brief appreciation of Weaver, make this a book no student of language and ideas should be without. Richard M. Weaver was one of the most stimulating and controversial rhetorical theorists of our time. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago and was the author of several books, including Visions of Order, Ideas Have Consequences, The Ethics of Rhetoric, and Life Without Prejudice and Other Essays.

The Southern Tradition at Bay

The Southern Tradition at Bay
Author: Richard M. Weaver
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1684511852

While Richard M. Weaver is best known for the classic Ideas Have Consequences, the foundation of his career was this study of his native South. Calling the Southern tradition "the last non-materialist civilization in the Western world," he traced its roots to feudalism, chivalry, religiosity, and aristocratic conventions. The Old South, he concluded, "may indeed be a hall hung with splendid tapestries in which no one would care to live; but from them we can learn something of how to live." Weaver’s exploration of the ideals and ideas of the Southern tradition as expressed in the military histories, autobiographies, diaries, and novels of the era following the Civil War—especially those written by the men and women on the losing side—is offered to a new generation of readers for whom that tradition has fallen into disrepute and who can scarcely imagine a life rooted in nature, the soil, and a powerful sense of honor. The Southern Tradition at Bay is, as Jeffrey Hart noted, the work of a man who admired what "is admirable indeed, and that is the foundation of wisdom and indeed sanity."

The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver

The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver
Author: Richard M. Weaver
Publisher: Liberty Fund
Total Pages: 306
Release: 1987
Genre: History
ISBN:

Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963) was one of the leading figures in the post-World War II development of an intellectual, self-conscious conservatism. His thought and his appreciation of liberty were rooted in his understanding of Southern history. He believed that Southern values of religion, work ethic, and family could provide a defense against the totalitarian nihilism of fascist and communist statism. This collection of fourteen essays demonstrates George Core's point that "few writers of the South rival Richard Weaver in comprehensiveness of vision and depth of thought."

Richard M. Weaver, 1910-1963

Richard M. Weaver, 1910-1963
Author: Fred Douglas Young
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1995
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780826210302

Young accomplishes this by using Weaver's own writings on scholarship and by discussing his most representative and significant essays and books - Ideas Have Consequences, Language Is Sermonic, and others. Young also interviews the people who were closest to Weaver: Russell Kirk; Cleanth Brooks; Clifford Amyx, an artist and intellectual; his sister Polly Weaver Beaton; and Professor Wilma R. Ebbitt, a colleague and friend during Weaver's years at the University of Chicago. Although many have associated Weaver with the Vanderbilt Agrarians and have stereotyped him as a conservative, this work makes plain that Weaver cannot be seen simply and wholly in this light. Many of the stands Weaver took, such as opposing the registration of Communists during the McCarthy era, set him apart from the conservative mainstream and made people of many different political persuasions respect his ideas.

We Are Our Ancestors

We Are Our Ancestors
Author: Richard F. Weaver
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2009
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1434992381

Around Lexington, Virginia

Around Lexington, Virginia
Author: Richard Weaver
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 1999-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738589701

From the 1890s through the 1940s, postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of local street scenes, documenting landmarks, and assembling crowds of children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history.

Barbarians in the Saddle

Barbarians in the Saddle
Author: John McHale
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2020-12-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9781138507524

Richard M. Weaver was one of the founders of modern conservatism and an enduring intellectual figure of twentieth-century America. He was dedicated to examining the dual nature of human beings and the quest for civilized communities in a corrupted age that believed in the religion of science and in the "natural goodness" of man. Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences sowed the seeds for the traditionalist wing of modern American conservatism. On the brink of the twenty-first century, the triumph of science and technology looms larger than ever. Weaver's prophetic writings on post-World War II Western decline and his visionary talents, however bleak, can easily extend into many facets of modern life: high divorce rates, a declining standard of living, the dehumanizing aspects of a corporate economy, and the destruction of civil communities. Barbarians in the Saddle is Joseph Scotchie's intellectual biography of Richard M. Weaver. It is an in-depth study of each of Weaver's published works and an examination of the significant influence he had on the formation of conservative America. Ideas Have Consequences and Visions of Order examine the problem of life in "megalopolis" where the best of everything is promised to the restless masses by their leaders and a cradle-to-grave social security state results in dangerous levels of decadence, resentment, and the loss of civility and culture. In The Southern Tradition at Bay and other essays on the American South, Weaver expresses his preference for the nonmaterialistic, virtuous ethos of the Old South. Finally, The Ethics of Rhetoric highlights Weaver's devotion to a discipline increasingly out of favor with academia. Thirty years after his untimely death, Richard Weaver remains a heroic figure to many concerned about the state of American culture and its alienated, rootless conditions. Now a new generation of leaders can understand the importance of this pioneer of thought. Barbarians in the Saddle will be of significant value to political theorists, philosophers, and students of American civilization.