How to Read Texts and Discover Surprising Insights?

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Philosophy has to be understood as something inherently and necessarily subversive. People who follow strouts are often accused of perverse ingenuity, because they are always looking at what lies underneath. All philosophers are subverse, that you begin with, and they all tell lies, therefore, i say, up to the nineteenth century. And so one approaches a text with this expectation, and it leads to a certain amount of ingenuity.

Harvey Mansfield is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. One of the old guard of American conservative thought, he has taught at Harvard since 1962, and counts among his former students Andrew Sullivan, Francis Fukuyama, and Bill Kristol.

In this week’s conversation, Harvey Mansfield and Yascha Mounk discuss the nature of American liberalism, Donald Trump’s effect on conservatism, and Alexis de Tocqueville’s enduring relevance.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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