The Importance of Philosophy in Politics

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Pain believes ultimately that politics is applied principle, and so that it has to start from the right philosophical principles. He doesn't think that we should start by learning from the past. Pain: "We should throw off the past, and to the extent we can, build a politics on the right foundations"

Yuval Levin, author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left, talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Burke and Paine and their influence on the evolution of political philosophy. Levin outlines the differing approaches of the two thinkers to liberty, authority, and how reform and change should take place. Other topics discussed include Hayek's view of tradition, Cartesian rationalism, the moral high ground in politics, and how the "right and left" division of American politics finds its roots in the debates of these thinkers from the 1700s.