Focusing on Lyotard, Vattimo and Rorty, this book offers a critique of postmodernism and its implications for political life and thought. Pangle examines the political dimensions of postmodernist teachings, including the rejection of the natural-rights doctrines of the Enlightenment, the discounting of public purposefulness and the disenchantment with claims of civic virtue and reason. Drawing on the classical republican ideal, Pangle opens the door to a new synthesis in political philosophy.