Boba University

Prussian Idealism  Political discussion in the modern west never extends beyond bipartisan shouting match to something more philosophical. The kind of thinkers discussed today are normally limited to a few liberal political philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, or Rousseau. What all these thinkers have in common is that they have an individualistic outlook and anarchistic ontology that places the individual above society. Thus, it always conceives society as a contractual creation between free individuals. But there is another tradition in the West, a more illiberal philosophical tradition, perhaps best exemplified by Prussian philosophers such as Hegel, Kant, Frederick the Great, and Spengler. It may be important to look back to them as they offer an alternate view and allows Americans to reflect on whether their ideas apply to all parts of the world.    There is no other country revered for its constant sloganeering about freedom and liberty than France. Nothing co...

The Congress of Vienna in 1815 was a conglomeration of different diplomats and important people from different European countries. Part of the reasons for its success is that it unconsciously functions on the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and egalitarianism because the diplomacy is mostly about most of Europe trying to decide on how to restore the countries to their former boundaries and to give them to their "rightful" rulers i.e. giving property back to all than having them under a monolithic France. It's not a crazy idea to think that this meeting between the allied powers is democratic in nature, because the success of the congress is described by Metternich, "not on my part, nor on that of Austria, but from society at large..." But at the same time, it was also a triumph for anti-liberal, anti-democratic Austrian policy, and also, because of British and French disagreement, it was a demonstration of the decline of the congress system. The congress proclai...