Completion of the Project of the West and Its Romantic Sequel: Essays in the History of Western Culture

In this broad overview of culture, ancient and modern, Patrick Madigan examines an historical series of philosophical failures, each more serious than the last: the incompleteness of Aristotelian analysis; the weakness of the Plotinian synthesis; the limited Cartesian response to the arch skeptic; the distinction without a difference in the Leibnizian/Kantian strategy; and the ensuing current romantic settlement as a victory which is indistinguishable from defeat since it leaves everything as it found it. All this leads to our current insecurity and instability as focused on by Nietzsche. And so we come ultimately full swing to the origins of Christianity and Jesus’ role as the experience of the fidelity of God.