Theses/Dissertations - Political Science

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Grounding reason : Socratic dialectic in Aristotle's Topics and Plato's Hipparchus, Minos, and Lovers.
(May 2023) Wells, Matthew L., 1996-; Burns, Timothy, 1958-
The primary purpose of this dissertation is to recover Aristotle’s and Plato’s teaching about dialectic. The dissertation contains two interrelated arguments. First, I argue that Plato and Aristotle share considerable common ground concerning Socratic dialectic. That is, both think that the critical examination of everyday opinions about what is choiceworthy (e.g., the good, the just, and the noble) has a momentous role to play in the grounding of science and the confirming of the choiceworthiness of the philosophic life. Second, I argue that this comparative project helpfully recovers unjustly neglected works of Plato’s political philosophy. This dissertation contains three main parts. Part one is one chapter investigating Aristotle’s teaching on dialectic in his Topics. I find that, according to Aristotle, dialectic is imminently needful for the “philosophic sciences,” the interdependency of our knowledge elevates the study of political opinions, and the practice of dialectic requires the employment of clever devices in order to get unguarded, honest admissions from interlocutors. The second part consists of three chapters on Plato. Chapter three is an examination of Plato’s Hipparchus, which is devoted to the love of gain or, on closer inspection, to what is genuinely good or beneficial for someone. Chapter four turns to Plato’s Minos, which investigates what law is and discloses the comprehensive character of the human things. Chapter five interprets Plato’s Lovers, which explores the relationship between philosophy and the noble and the place of erotic love in human life. Part two studies Plato’s teaching within these three dialogues and explains how Plato’s Socrates shows the desirability of the philosophic life through his examination of his interlocutor’s political opinions. I conclude, in Part Three, with a chapter spelling out the significant agreements between Plato and Aristotle on the purpose and procedure of Socratic dialectic on the basis of the preceding chapters. They agree that the dialectical examination of the choiceworthy has a momentous role to play in the attainment of science, for the comprehensive character of the human things makes them uniquely suited for clarifying our opinions about the character of the whole.
Montesquieu's moderate statesmanship and the Sino-American relationship.
(December 2022) Ruiz, Christopher, 1988-; Clinton, W. David.
This dissertation’s point of departure is the observation that many general theories of international politics have been unable to isolate a lodestar by which American statesmen can navigate the rise of China. A principal problem these theories face is an overreliance on parsimonious, abstract systems in their explanations and predictions of international behavior. The international political thought of Montesquieu is a fruitful alternative for statesmen. Rather than reducing international political life to a system of interaction between general causes, Montesquieu’s corpus shows that the real impact of general causes can only be understood as qualified by both particular circumstances—which find expression in the decisively particular political communities that span the globe—and human freedom. The infinity of particular circumstances and indeterminacy of free human actions will invariably frustrate attempts to solve international problems or predict international behavior with any certainty. Accordingly, Montesquieu demonstrates that a statesmanship founded on both intellectual and practical moderation, as opposed to a kind of mathematical certitude derived from abstract systems, is the best way to understand international political life. This dissertation illustrates Montesquieu’s contribution to international political thought through an ongoing discussion of how Montesquieu’s thought can help American statesmen navigate the contemporary Sino-American relationship.
The Homeric defense of poetry : on the music of the Iliad and the judgment of Achilles.
(August 2022) Krauss, Spencer J., 1987-; Burns, Timothy, 1958-
This dissertation is an attempt to answer the question of how the poet Homer understood his poetic activity and how, in particular, he understood the task, which he was later said to have accomplished, of educating the Hellenes. The dissertation has six chapters. Chapter One introduces the reader to the problem that modern philosophy hoped to dispose of by means of socio-political reforms and that Homer sought to address with his poetry. Chapter Two prepares the way for our discussion of Homer’s poetic activity by bringing out what is at stake in the Trojan War, both for the poem’s heroes and for the gods they invoke for support. Chapter Three argues that for Agamemnon, the Achaean commander-in-chief, the war is to establish that pious deference to the gods is not a necessary or essential part of communal life and that even the general run of men can come to abandon hope in the divine and to embrace the perishability of all things. Chapter Four brings out the unwisdom of the Agamemnonian endeavor by means of a close reading of the supplication scene of Book IX, the scene in which Achilles levels his critique against the heroic life. Chapter Five examines the figure of Nestor, the most 2 “poetic” of the Achaeans, and attempts to unfold the justification of Homer’s poetic activity that is implied by his critique of social progress. Chapter Six concludes the dissertation with a few brief remarks on the state of contemporary Homeric scholarship.
The political necessity of religion : classical, Christian, and modern approaches to religion’s role in the City of Man.
(August 2022) Gonzalez, Michael R., 1995-; Burns, Timothy, 1958-
This dissertation asks whether religion and theology are necessary for (or even conducive to) political life. Towards understanding this question, the dissertation examines Lucretius, Augustine, and Hobbes’s respective accounts of religion in the political community as three fundamental alternatives. While Lucretius acknowledges a (utilitarian) necessity of religion in political life, and Augustine proposes that Christianity can play a unique and valuable role in ennobling political life, Hobbes expresses confidence in the self-sufficiency of the state—a man-made “Mortal God.” That is to say, Augustine’s division of the Two Cities acts as provocateur to Hobbes’s campaign against both Christian ecclesial theology and classical political philosophy (including that which Lucretius espouses). The dissertation concludes that, considering arguments drawn from Lucretius and Augustine, Hobbes’s thesis remains deeply questionable. It then briefly makes a case for returning to Augustine’s principles from Hobbes’s innovations, even while giving sober consideration to Lucretius’s broad critique of religion.
Diplomatic immunity : the history and enduring significance.
(2022-03-25) Carroll Beaty, Olivia M., 1989-; Clinton, W. David.
Is diplomatic immunity a transitory or permanent feature of international life? This dissertation will answer this question by exploring the theory, history, and contemporary understanding of diplomatic immunity. A case study of the recently verified Amarna Age will provide evidence of this nature. After affirming that diplomatic immunity is indeed a permanent and essential feature of international relations, this study shall examine the intersection of the public’s current understanding of this practice and the duties of the modern state. A case study of a recent outcry against diplomatic immunity will be examined to highlight how tensions can manifest in today’s networked society. Given that some manifestation of diplomatic immunity is a natural and permanent feature of international relations, what methods can be utilized to hold diplomats accountable while also preserving this important practice? This dissertation will map a few ways that accountability can be fostered within the current system of international relations without requiring a major overhaul of current international treaties.
Seeing the good : moral perception in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
(2022-04-06) Goyette, Elizabeth A., 1993-; Burns, Timothy, 1958-; Ward, Ann M.
This dissertation argues that Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics and Politics offers a unified conception of a human activity of and capacity for perceiving the justice, nobility or goodness of moral actions and agents. This perception (aisthēsis), which I call “moral perception,” serves as a foundation for the attainment of moral truth, making possible prudent deliberation and an understanding of what is good or bad, just or unjust, noble or base. While moral perception enables us to grasp moral truth and while it is intellectual, it is not logical. Rather, analogously to sense perception, the activity of moral perception is one of receiving the forms of moral qualities as these are encountered in particular actions. Through moral perception, one “sees” rather than reasons to the moral character of particular actions. While the capacity for moral perception belongs to all human beings by nature, the capacity for moral perception must be developed through experience and guided by habituation in order to make possible the accuracy of moral perception belonging to the morally virtuous and prudent person. In addition to making the case for the existence of the concept of moral perception in the Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, and explaining what it is, this dissertation explains how exactly experience and habituation contribute to the development of moral perception. Aristotle’s conception of moral perception explains how it is possible to attain moral truth in the face of the fact that people can have such strongly held opposing views over the most fundamental questions of morality. Moreover, the notion of moral perception offers a helpful framework for public discourse. Inasmuch as all human beings have some access to moral truth through the innate capacity for moral perception, there is common ground to which all can look in public moral and political deliberations. In addition to this, the concept of moral perception provides a way out of disagreement and confusion concerning moral truth in that experience and correct habituation serve as means of correcting and refining the various divergent perceptions held by the members of society.
Combatant moral equality in historical and practical context.
(2022-03-16) Vicars, Robert P., IV 1974-; Campbell, Peter P.
Enemy soldiers in war are permitted to kill one another without moral blame. This permission, though, is limited by rules specifically constructed for war. These rules apply symmetrically to both sides of war and independently of the justice of their causes. This feature of the morality of war is called the moral equality of combatants (MEC). The current concept of MEC emerged as a property of the laws of war in the modern era, though its development is traceable in the history of just war. The morality of the concept has been questioned by revisionist scholars who seek to replace it with a system of morality strictly grounded in individual morality. This dissertation contends that such efforts neglect the morally relevant contexts of those who must apply the morality of war—statesmen and soldiers. It argues that combatant moral equality is warranted because it is well-suited for the complexities of anarchy among statesmen and duty among soldiers, and it is morally better than its revisionist alternative because it moderates, rather than exacerbates, the already escalatory tendency of war.
Memory as the political art in Plato's Statesman.
(2021-12-03) Craig, Catherine, 1995-; Ward, Ann M.
The nature and purpose of memory is central to Plato’s Statesman. Explicitly a pursuit of the political art, the dialogue has substantial epistemological and ontological concerns, suggesting the order of the whole and the nature of human understanding in relationship to this order explains the cause and end of political life. On one hand, the dialogue uses memory in a very similar way to anamnesis—in order to make an argument both about how human beings come to know things, and about the relationship of the rational soul to first principles. This is shown in the Stranger’s cosmic myth about relationship between the Age of Zeus to the Age of Cronus, as well as the Stranger’s later discussion of paradigms, dialectic and “the bodiless things.” The Stranger explains that the nature of human understanding requires paradigms, or images that resemble the thing itself, to make one’s implicit understanding explicit. On the other, the Stranger also uses memory in a practical, political sense, or the way that most people would commonly understand memory—memory of a specific action that they experienced in the past. This is shown in the Stranger’s discussion of laws, as well as his pedagogical approach to young Socrates. By using both, the Stranger suggests that the more philosophical concerns of anamnesis are in fact related to practical, political concerns. Recollection explains the nature and end of political life, such that it mediates between a universal, rational order, and the particular ends and circumstances of human life. The Stranger’s use of recollection offers a way of understanding what is actually true, such that one can distinguish between what is a true and false image, or, politically speaking, to distinguish between a sophist and a statesman.
Judgment on the sword : the US Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on presidential war powers.
(2021-08-02) Slomski, Benjamin J., 1993-; Nichols, David K.
This dissertation examines the US Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on presidential war powers from the early republic to the present. It argues that the Court’s jurisprudence has generally defended both a broad presidential power to prosecute war as well as a strong judicial power to enforce constitutional limits on the executive. In contrast to the majority of the literature which defends either presidential primacy or congressional primacy over war, the Court’s jurisprudence offers an alternative approach to constitutional war powers that recognizes discretion for the president to conduct war but also constitutional restrictions that moderate the executive power. The Court has developed a tradition of jurisprudence, reflected heavily in the thought of Joseph Story and Abraham Lincoln, which recognizes that there are broad presidential war powers granted by the Constitution that depend upon circumstances for their application and that because these powers come from the Constitution, they are subject to its limits, including judicial review. This Story-Lincoln tradition arose against a challenge for congressional primacy in the nineteenth century and defended itself against a challenge for unlimited presidential war powers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Aldo Leopold's political thought : particularizing American environmental dialogue.
(2021-05-27) Boros, Jacob R., 1994-; Nichols, David K.
In this dissertation, I examine the writings of the twentieth-century conservationist Aldo Leopold as examples of American environmental political thought. I argue that studying Leopold’s work can help Americans with differing perspectives on why and how to protect the environment debate productively by focusing on particular aspects of the human-nature relationship. Leopold articulates a strong case for each of America’s four great environmental traditions: Biocentrism, which advocates protecting nature for its own sake; Progressivism, which sees conservation as a means toward increasing social justice and equity; Republicanism, which views a healthy human-nature relationship as essential to the flourishing of self-governing communities; and Romanticism, which sees in nature a pathway to individual spiritual fulfillment. In doing so, however, Leopold shows that environmental dialogue can only solve important problems if citizens share a common understanding of “the land” as an ecological whole composed of soils, waterways, plants, and animals – including human beings. This vision particularizes environmental thought, resisting a tendency toward abstract thinking about “the environment” while retaining a holistic perspective. Citizens with different motivations for protecting and preserving nature can understand one another if they possess this notion of land, rooted in scientific observation while retaining a notion of human flourishing. Leopold identifies multiple paths through which individuals can reach this understanding. Ethical reflection can help humans see their unique position within the land community as a grant of moral responsibility to preserve it. Ecological science, conducted by both professional public servants and private amateurs, provides a tangible picture of the natural world and inclines its practitioners to act on it. National history and elements of American society such as hunting, farming, and family life show citizens how to use the land well, and how understanding it can enrich their communities. Learning how to read land as a text, and how to wonder at its complexity, introduces an element of the transcendent to political life without devolving into abstract mysticism. All these paths operate within a prudential liberal republican framework, one within which Americans can understand and build a healthy relationship with their natural surroundings.
Raymond Aron and his dialogues in an age of ideologies.
(2020-01-10) Orlando, Nathan, 1988-; Clinton, W. David.
This dissertation examines the thought and rhetoric of scholar and editorialist Raymond Aron by exploring his conversations on politics during the Cold War with several of his more well-known interlocutors, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Kissinger, and Charles de Gaulle. Each chapter finds Aron at odds with one of his contemporaries on a particular matter of policy in order to reveal the prudence of Aron’s politics of understanding as well as the emphasis he places on and virtue he demonstrates in public discourse. Through his dialogues, Aron shows us not only how to think politically but also how to engage in constructive public debate.
The nature of global contest : will-to-power and Nietzsche's international politics.
(2020-01-13) Carr, Rex G., Jr., 1983-; Clinton, W. David.
Though known for its sweeping and encompassing character, Nietzsche’s thought has had little influence in the field of international politics. This is striking given the frequency with which Nietzsche writes not only of nations, but of the significance of their relationships. To address this deficit, as well as foster new and productive engagement with Nietzsche within the field of international politics, the following study articulates what I understand to be the theory of international politics implied by, and operating within, Nietzsche’s philosophy. Beginning with Nietzsche’s foundational theory of will-to-power, I detail its relationship to human flourishing as understood by Nietzsche, and the importance of social constructions: Nietzsche considers culture, society, and even the state as natural human creations intended to aid man in establishing life-enhancing relationships with the primal forces of life as articulated in the theory of will-to-power. But of equal importance with respect to human flourishing is the international system within which such domestic energies and associations operate: I argue that Nietzsche conceives of the international system as an essential arena in which those life-enhancing agonistic struggles between culturally distinct populations deemed necessary for human flourishing are able to occur on a grand and far more consequential scale. Furthermore, I demonstrate the ways in which Nietzsche sees international politics becoming only more central to mankind’s future following the Death of God: Western man’s two-millennia long physiological transformation, combined with a civilizational post-God cultural exhaustion lead Nietzsche to view the coming age as one defined by global conflicts over the future of the species. Informed by analysis of these and other key concepts, I articulate a naturally emergent model of international politics: aristocratic in character, the center of such politics is cultural vitality rather than material power, with communities struggling against one another in pursuit of creative energy. I conclude by situating this model among the dominant theories within the field of international politics, and discuss at length its implications regarding liberalism and the current standards of international morality.
The blind guide : the principle of individual autonomy.
(2020-02-06) Harris, Corrie Elizabeth, 1984-; Nichols, David K.
In this dissertation I examine jurisprudence that applies the principle of individual autonomy in the areas of law that connect to the human life cycle: birth, marriage, child-rearing, and death. I focus on the human life cycle because of its close connection to the family. The Court’s application of individual autonomy is rapidly transforming the legal understanding of the family and by extension society as a whole. In examining the Courts’ autonomy jurisprudence, I demonstrate that the principle preemptively weights the decision in favor of the individual and, in consequence, undermines meaningful analysis of the competing and intertwined interests of the individual and society. This has resulted in the transformation of social norms and institutions prior to a complete evaluation of the potential ramifications for the individual and society. My dissertation endeavors to begin filling this gap of critical analysis. I consider what interests have not been sufficiently accounted for in the areas of abortion, gestational surrogacy contracts, marriage, children, and physician-assisted suicide. I examine how autonomy jurisprudence inadequately accounts for the legal situation, and what interests and principles would lead to a fuller understanding of the legal situation and the long-term interests of society. In particular, I examine the possibility of recovering principles from the common law tradition to guide legal decision-making that can adequately address the complexity and variety of human relationships. I hope that this dissertation points to some potential opportunities to work within our constitutional tradition to promote jurisprudence that more accurately describes the human condition and better promotes human flourishing.
Aristotle's liberality.
(2020-04-29) Mathie, Catherine A., 1986-; Nichols, Mary P.
My dissertation argues that Aristotle intends his account of unnatural economic arts in Book I of the Politics to emphasize the moral danger posed by the pursuit of wealth and reveal the importance of the household—and the family within it— as the natural association where human acquisition primarily takes place and should be moderated. My analysis shows how the problem of acquisition reflects tension between the limits and possibilities of human nature: human beings have the ingenuity to invent and use money to provide for their needs, but money has immense flexibility and readily tempts human beings to neglect their authentic good. However, nature also provides human beings with a strong grounding in the family to resist these temptations through education of desire and cultivation of virtue. I show that Aristotle expands upon these considerations in the Nicomachean Ethics in his account of the virtue concerned with the use of money—liberality. Here he emphasizes the widespread danger that stinginess—the vice of excessive concern for money—poses to human life, arguing that common human preoccupation with money stems from the experience of need, but also identifying grounds for optimism about the prospects of redirecting self-destructive spending into virtue. I show that liberality is a crucial virtue for Aristotle: on one hand it serves as a model for the education of “nonnecessary” desires, and on the other, it pursues a peculiarly promising version of nobility insofar as it is tied to the salutary recognition of the human constraints that unite virtuous actors with those towards whom they act. Thus it avoids the frequent risk for noble actors to ignore their human limits in their pursuit of greatness and thereby allows for more coherent virtuous action. Finally, I turn back to the Politics where Aristotle reveals that civil faction and tyranny are frequently the high political costs of human preoccupation with money. This confirms the importance of both the household and liberality, insofar as they together provide human beings with critical means to resist the threat of greed and better navigate the relationship between their natural limits and orientation towards ennobling freedom.
The role of the myth in Plato's Statesman.
(2019-08-16) Craig, Catherine, 1995-; Ward, Ann M.
Plato’s Statesman attempts to find the eidos of the political art “separated and removed…from everything else” (Plato 1984: 258c). Perhaps unsurprisingly, this proves to be a rather difficult task. The conversation is led by an Eleatic Stranger with a young man named Socrates. The Stranger begins with precise division, cutting the broad category of “knowers” successively down the middle, leading to increasingly specific categories (258b). From this method, the Stranger initially defines the statesman as a herdsman who nurtures a flock of human beings, or “featherless bipeds,” a somewhat unsatisfying account of human beings, not to mention the political art (268d). The Stranger must begin the search anew (267a). It turns out the Stranger has a very literal return to the beginning in mind; in place of the failed method of division, he gives a mythological account of the origin and structure of the cosmos, wherein the cosmos is sometimes rotated by the god and sometimes let go to move itself. Through its cosmic and poetic orientation, the myth seems quite distant from the dialogue’s stated practical goal of finding the statesman. The reader learns, however, that this return to cosmic beginnings is not a digression but rather essential to the question at hand; in order to know the statesman, one must know the place of human beings in the whole.
Philosophical foundations for political change : Aristotle's inquiry into beginnings in the Nicomachean ethics.
(2019-08-09) Alexander, Rachel Katherine, 1991-; Nichols, Mary P.
This dissertation is an attempt to articulate an Aristotelian alternative to the two prominent contemporary ways of understanding human freedom and dependence on the past, and their implications for political action and change. The liberal tendency that emphasizes the absolute self-reliance and even self-making of the individual, on one hand, understands the task of political founding and ruling to consist in breaking from the past. This approach follows Machiavelli’s emphasis on new modes and orders, as well as Hobbes’ and Locke’s emphasis on the founding acts of human beings when they enter into contracts that remove them from a “state of nature” and form civil societies. The more conservative camp in modern thought, on the other hand, follows Burke in his emphasis on tradition, the experience of the past, and the benefits of relying on it. This approach understands human flourishing to depend on laws and customs inherited from the past. Aristotle’s teaching in his Nicomachean Ethics on the freedom and responsibility that make human beginnings possible points us, I propose, to a better understanding of political founding than either of the modern alternatives. Aristotle’s founding work addresses liberals who neglect the traditions that bind a community and the stability that makes human flourishing possible, as well as conservatives who minimize the deliberate guidance—from philosophers, founders, statesmen, and citizens—that cultivating virtue requires. Simple appeals to both nature and history that look beyond human action miss the complexity of human and political life that Aristotle presents. In the Politics, he connects the city to natural beginnings in the family but also calls the first who founded a city one “responsible for the greatest of goods” (Pol. 1253a31-32). And in the Ethics, he offers his own founding of a way of inquiring about politics, which engages with his own predecessors, as a model for politics itself. In this way, Aristotle offers us a deeper understanding of political change, even presenting his own philosophic inquiry in the Ethics as its ground and model.
No mere creature of the state : American jurisprudence on the right of parents to direct their children’s education.
(2019-07-09) Griffith, Joseph Kenneth, 1991-; Nichols, David K.
This dissertation examines the American judiciary’s many attempts to adjudicate disputes between parents and the state concerning the education of children. I argue that by following the common-law tradition courts have been able—and can continue—to hold the middle ground between state and parental absolutism: common law instructs courts to begin with a general presumption that parents generally have affectionate and knowledgeable care for their children and then to judge the particular, competing interests of parents and the state in a way that does the least damage to each. This broad tradition—found in the writings of common-law jurists in England and America; articulated in state supreme court decisions in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century; and reinforced by the Supreme Court throughout the twentieth century (including in Meyer v. Nebraska, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, and Wisconsin v. Yoder)—can help guide America’s jurisprudence today.
Jonathan Swift's response to the challenge of modernity : a reading of Gulliver's Travels.
(2019-04-08) Condra, Clinton Charles, 1984-; Clinton, W. David.
In Gulliver’s Travels Swift does obliquely what he does in his sermons and non-satirical writings more directly: he defends a settled social order, which was held together morally by a common Christian religion and led politically by men of property and liberal education, or by gentlemen. Swift defends this order not as perfect but as preferable, despite its imperfections, to the proposed and emerging modern alternatives. In the settled order he sees better prospects for what he calls in one of his sermons “the present happiness of mankind.” By this he means the measure of happiness available to human beings in this world, which he describes in the same sermon as intended by God to be “a place of trial” rather than anything like the “place of rest [that men] would make it.” Modernity is presented in the Travels as an attempt—or as a set of similar and similarly dangerous attempts—to transform the world into a place of rest, and Gulliver is decisively modern in his attraction to each of these attempts.
The common law of nations : the ius gentium in the political thought of Francisco Suárez, S.J.
(2019-03-26) Gonzalez, Michael Roland, 1995-; Clinton, W. David.
Francisco Suárez preserved and refined the classical notion of ius gentium for modernity. According to Suárez, the law of nations consisted in mutually recognized norms that govern international conduct in war and peace, bearing legal status as customary standards. As such, the ius gentium offered a tenable basis for international order in a post-Christendom world, becoming the foundation for international relations in the emerging epoch of nation states. Suárez presented the ius gentium as a means to international order without an international authority. He proposed that states, as communitates perfectae, or self-sufficient and independent authorities, could govern international life together through common effort. By explicating Suárez’s international thought, and by comparing and contrasting it with that of Hugo Grotius and Edmund Burke, I will endeavor to demonstrate that Suárez’s account of international relations most accurately identifies the bases for international order without international authority.
Hamiltonianism : Alexander Hamilton on American foreign policy.
(2019-03-01) Boucher, Joshua Gregory, 1991-; Clinton, W. David.
American foreign policy-making often involves a choice between various “traditions.” Hamiltonianism is one such tradition that has informed decision making throughout American history. However, Hamiltonianism has not been previously well-defined in terms of its namesake. This dissertation asks two questions: what are the principles of Alexander Hamilton’s foreign policy? And are those principles reflected in the foreign policies of other American foreign policy makers throughout history? Through a close-reading of several of Hamilton’s most important essays, letters, and other documents, the dissertation better defines Hamiltonianism by pointing towards several foundational principles in the tradition. The dissertation begins by examining Hamilton on the national interest, then on human nature, international law, war, commerce, and diplomacy. It examines Hamilton’s writings on justice, and determines that it is just for states to take care of their own but also to fairly take into account the interests of others when possible. It examines Hamilton on institutional responsibility in foreign policy, and on the importance and use of national honor in policy making. Finally, the dissertation looks for Hamiltonian principles in action in various policy-makers throughout American history. In the end, the dissertation does determine that there are principles in Hamiltonianism and where we can find them in Hamilton’s writings, as well as where those principles have been used from future policy-makers in American history.

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