Hunting Witches: Humanities Core Spring Quarter, Here we go again.
I think this is the most interesting quarter of Humanities Core. In this quarter we explore the relationship between invisible principles and the visible order—the vary heart of what we do in the humanities.

Today Michael Clark introduced his thesis: “Society is regulated by connecting the visible characteristics of Order to the invisible principles of Law.”

I may have garbled this a bit when I tried to discuss it with my students, but hopefully they got the idea: societies construct a visible order based upon certain (assumed to be correct) invisible principles/laws. In a way, this reminds us of both Plato and Cicero. Both men tried to construct an order grounded in some kind of “reasonable” set of principles. For Cicero, these principles are found in nature. Only nature is authoritative and accessible enough to provide societies with a reasonable basis for order. Plato’s schema is harder to see because his schema relies on the rulers being philosophers who contemplate the divine/ideal realm. But both recognize that this order cannot be arbitrary. Similarly, the Enlightenment discourse on rights presupposed a rational basis for the social contract. The Rights of Man and Citizen is meant to be a (written) expression of some principles, which, to the authors of the Declaration of Independence are “self evident.”

But is establishing this “invisible” basis for our visible order so easy? It seems to me it is not. Students in Humanities Core tend to dismiss the Puritans (and McCarthy) as fanatical, failing to understand the “rational” basis of their beliefs. It seems to me this is a trick we all play on ourselves. The other guy is always irrational, but we are always rational. Our beliefs are correct, grounded in reason, or God, or nature, but the other’s beliefs are irrational, godless, and unnatural.

In addition to Clark’s thesis, I hope students were able to follow his comparison between Miller and Hansen. For Miller the problem is repression. If people could be free they would be better off. For Hansen, the problem is people need regulation (though in the case of Salem there may have been problems with the system of regulation). In Clockwork Orange (the film) the society Kubrick depicts has lost its ability to connect the visible order with invisible laws, and therefore must resort to sheer coercion to enforce that order.

Does our society have a common set of values and principles upon which we can base its order? If so, what basis do we have for accepting that order (especially in the absence of God, reason, or nature to endorse it)?