The contemporary French political philosopher Pierre Manent is widely acknowledged as a thinker of the first rank, one whose approach to the study of human affairs renews political philosophy’s original ambition to provide a truly “architectonic” or comprehensive grasp of the human world. Manent’s concerns are the age-old ones of the city and the soul. He approaches them through the study of the great texts of political philosophy and political history and through a patient “phenomenological” description of human motives (the useful, the pleasant, and the noble), as well as the virtues and vices of men. His weekly seminar from 1992 to 2014 at the Amphithéâtre Furet at the Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris drew many long-term auditors and allowed him to explore authors and themes that would later greatly enrich his works. His writings are marked by a high-minded sobriety equidistant from facile relativism and strident ideological claims. Those who count him as a friend also know him to be a thoughtful, witty, kind, and affable human being.
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