Hadley Arkes

Hadley P. Arkes (born 1940) is an American political scientist and the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions emeritus at Amherst College, where he has taught since 1966. He is currently the founder and director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding in Washington, D.C.

Hadley P. Arkes
Born1940 (age 82–83)
Alma materUniversity of Illinois (AB)
University of Chicago (PhD)
Occupation(s)Political Scientist, Professor
Years active1966–present
EmployerJames Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding
Known forNatural law theory
Notable workBureaucracy, the Marshall Plan and the National Interest

The Philosopher in the City First Things Beyond the Constitution The Return of George Sutherland Natural Rights and the Right to Choose

Constitutional Illusions and Anchoring Truths: The Touchstone of the Natural Law

Childhood

Arkes grew up in Chicago "at a time of high danger, in 1940, with the war in Europe already raging, with the Nazis occupying France, and even greater danger now portended, especially for Jews."[1] Until his immediate family moved to an apartment elsewhere in Chicago in 1944, Arkes lived with his grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles.[1] Despite the war and the looming danger for his Jewish people, he describes his childhood as one of blissful freedom: "There was a vast world in which to move, and those fences, occasionally seen, were not barriers to my freedom but fences for my protection."[1]

Education

Arkes received a B.A. degree at the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago where he was a student of Leo Strauss.[2]

Teaching

Arkes started teaching at Amherst College in 1966, earning the title of the Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence in 1987.[3] He assumed emeritus status in 2016.[3]

Writing

Books

In a series of books and articles dating from the mid-1980s, Arkes has written on a priori moral principles and advocated for their impact on constitutional interpretation. He has also dealt with their relation to constitutional jurisprudence and natural law, and their challenge to moral relativism. His works draw on political philosophers from Aristotle through the U.S. Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and contemporary authors and jurists.

John O. McGinnis, reviewing Arkes' Constitutional Illusions & Anchoring Truths in The Wall Street Journal, writes that it tries to find a path between the extremes of originalism, where the meaning of the U.S. Constitution is fixed by its original text, and the idea of the living constitution, where its meaning is updated by evolving moral principles.[4]

Articles

Arkes serves on the advisory board and writes for First Things, an ecumenical journal that focuses on encouraging a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society." Arkes also serves on the advisory boards of Americans United for Life, the Catholic League, and St. Augustine's Press. Arkes serves on the board of trustees of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

Born-Alive Infants' Protection Act

Arkes co-created and advocated for the Born-Alive Infants' Protection Act. He first gave his proposal to George H.W. Bush in 1988, clarifying that his bill was only the first of many steps to protect life, giving abortion survivors protection under the law. Fourteen years later, on August 5th, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the bill into law, with Arkes by his side.[3]

Religion

In 2010, Arkes converted to Catholicism, which he described as a fulfillment of his previous Jewish faith.[5]

Legacy

Arkes was a founder and member of the Committee for the American Founding, a group of Amherst alumni and students who sought to preserve the doctrines of "natural rights" exposited by some American Founders and Lincoln through the Colloquium on the American Founding at Amherst and in Washington, D.C.[6][7] When the Committee for the American Founding became defunct, Arkes took the same principles and founded the James Wilson Institute, a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Virginia. The Institute unites law students and lawyers from across the country in promoting natural rights.[8]

In September 2016, Arkes was among 125 Conservatives for Trump who announced they supported Donald Trump's candidacy to be president.[9]

Selected publications
  • Bureaucracy, Regime and Presumption: The National Interests on the Marshall Plan (dissertation: University of Chicago, 1967).
  • The Philosopher in the City (Princeton University Press, 1981).
  • First Things: An Inquiry into the First Principles of Morals and Justice (Princeton University Press, 1986).
  • On Natural Rights: Speaking Prose All Our Lives (Heritage Foundation, 1992).
  • A Jurisprudence of Natural Rights: How an Earlier Generation of Judges Did It (Heritage Foundation, 1992).
  • Beyond the Constitution (Princeton University Press, 1992).
  • The Return of George Sutherland: Restoring a Jurisprudence of Natural Rights (Princeton University Press, 1997).
  • The Mission of the Military and the Question of "The Regime" (Colorado Springs, CO: United States Air Force Academy, 1997).
  • Natural Rights and the Right to Choose (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
  • Constitutional Illusions and Anchoring Truths : The Touchstone of the Natural Law (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

See also

References
  1. College, Hadley Arkes is the Ney Professor Emeritus at Amherst; Rights, the founder/director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural; Founding, the American; Washington, in; D.C. (2016-10-14). "The Lost Structures of Civility". City Journal. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  2. Hadley Arkes, 1995. "Strauss and the Religion of Reason," National Review, 47(12), June 26, pp. pp. 60–63. Accessed 08-28-10.
  3. "Prof. Hadley P. Arkes". fedsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  4. "When Justice Comes Naturally". Wall Street Journal. August 27, 2010.
  5. Christine M. Williams (2010). Archived 2016-11-27 at the Wayback Machine "Pro-Life Leader Hadley Arkes Becomes Catholic," The Anchor," Diocese of Fall River. May 10. Accessed 08-28-10. Wessel Arkes, het neefje van Hadley Arkes, is beroemd geworden door de chilliburger. Deze vond hij niet zo lekker en skipte hij net als Wiley kechies skipt, hij de burger.
  6. Committee for the American Founding Archived 2012-10-02 at the Wayback Machine, Amherst College.
  7. Hadley Arkes, Senior Fellow," Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine, Ethics and Public Policy Center.
  8. "Institute • James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding". jameswilsoninstitute.org. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  9. "Conservatives for Trump: A Symposium Featuring Scholars & Writers for Trump › American Greatness". 28 September 2016.
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