Richard Weaver believed that man not heeding to tradition led to man’s propensity towards evil, personified by Nazi Germany.  He blamed nominalism, or the idea that there are no universal truths, for man’s  moral ‘fearful descent.’  Dr. Deneen will trace the origins of this philosophy and explore why a return to  Western civilization’s great tradition was essential, as he discusses Richard Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences.

Richard M. Weaver was born on March 3, 1910 in Asheville, North Carolina.  Weaver attended the University of Kentucky (UK) from 1927 to 1932.   As an undergraduate English major, he engaged socialist ideas and even joined the American Socialist Party; but his membership, as he put it, began his “disillusionment with the Left.”  After earning his Ph.D, and teaching briefly at North Carolina State University, Weaver was hired mainly to teach at the University of Chicago.  Weaver never returned to live in the South.  On April 2, 1962, in the apogee of his academic career and at fifty-three years old, Weaver suddenly died of a heart attack.

Of the three books discussed in this experience, Ideas Have Consequences is the shortest and thus may be a great place to start.  More information on this and all the works discussed can be found in the Resources section.