The public buildings of Washington DC are modeled on Greek and Roman buildings. Men like Jefferson read not only modern writers, like Locke, but ancient writers like Cicero ("De Officiis" and "De Res Publica" were important to the republican ideal and the idea of mixed government used by the Founders). Even Jefferson valued the New Testament, absent it "mythic" element.
Before Plato, philosophers wrote oracular poems. Plato, and later Aristotle, began the practice of using reasoned argument in their manuscripts, and broke ground in logic and other studies. In a way, they taught Europe to think, and were used in college curricula in the colonial period. The discipline of mathematics, especially as epitomized by Euclid, was the most rigorous exemplar of logic available, which is why Spinoza wrote his "Ethics" according to the manner of Euclid. Euclid was the main text for math used by the Founders.
I could go on, but the point is that the patrimony of Western Civilization, while being added to, has also been moved forward, and has made the past relevant to the present.
I did not present the fundamental ideas of Western Civilization as if they were uniquely conservative. I presented a high regard for our legacy, and a concern for its preservation, as being distincly conservative. |
