The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) is pleased to announce that Dr. Kenneth Minogue, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics and former president of the Mont Pelerin Society, has accepted an invitation to join the AHI’s Board of Academic Advisors. The AHI co-sponsored Dr. Minogue’s appearance at Hamilton College recently to speak on “Is Social Justice Compatible with Freedom.” He then participated as a conferee at the Sixth Annual Carl B. Menges Colloquium “What Is a Civilizational Struggle? The Work of Samuel Huntington.” In a communication to AHI Charter Fellow Robert Paquette, Dr. Minogue expressed admiration for the work of the AHI “in cultivating a little higher learning in obviously very good students who might otherwise turn to sterile political activism.”
Professor Kenneth Minogue
Thomas Cheeseman, who is interning with the AHI as a Liberty Fellow before entering law school in the fall, worked with Leslie Marsh of the Michael Oakeshott Society to bring Dr. Minogue to Clinton. “Professor Minogue’s visit to the AHI, both to give a talk on the compatibility of social justice and freedom and to participate in the colloquium, was a real treat for everyone involved,” said Cheeseman. During his talk, Professor Minogue expertly laid out the difference between one-right-order societies and the development of the practice and tradition of freedom in the West. Detailing important developments and their impact on the development of freedom, Professor Minogue persuasively argued that the distinction between civitas dei and civitas terrena contributed to the desanctification of the state, making a free society possible. In contrast, modern attempts at social justice seek to limit freedom and impose a socially just society very similar to the traditional societies that Professor Minogue contrasted with the freedom of Western Civilization. His participation in the colloquium was similarly enlightening. Unafraid of political correctness, he addressed the essence of radical Islam and its incompatibility with a free society. In addition to his public contributions, a number of the AHI undergraduate fellows mentioned how much they enjoyed discussing the idea of Western Civilization with him.”
Professor Minogue has written dozens of books and articles on a wide variety of political and economic topics, including Alien Powers: The Pure Theory of Ideology (1985) and The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life (2010). “Kenneth Minogue’s study of ideology is one of the very best books I have read on the subject,” Paquette observed. “Contrary to fashionable pronouncements on college campuses, we are not all ideological. The Mont Pelerin Society is a legendary organization. Past presidents include Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Gary Becker. To have someone from that august body contributing to the mission of the AHI is a great honor.”
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