The Republican Professor

We continue Jaffa's discussion of Aristotle's Politics, this time Book II and his critique of his own professor Plato, in our discussion of an entry in the 1963 Rand McNally publication, edited by Leonard Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, called "History of Political Philosophy." This episode contains discussion of pages 80 thru the top of page 89 covering the first part of Book II of the Politics.

That entry on Aristotle is by Harry V. Jaffa, who famously applied his understanding of Political Philosophy to the history of the Republican Party in American politics, and who, as such, influenced me profoundly through my mentors, who were mentored by him. He is thus one of my intellectual grandfathers.

We continue our discussion of Harry Jaffa on Aristotle, pp. 80 thru the top of page 89 covering Book II of Aristotle's Politics, discussing an entry published the year before the author wrote one of the most infamous (or famous, depending) Aristotelean speeches for 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (R, AZ). Jaffa also wrote one of the most influential phenomenological comparisons of the Democratic and the Republican parties using classical political philosophy for the political phenomenology in "Crisis of the House Divided" (University of Chicago Press)

The Republican Professor is a pro-getting-political-philosophy right podcast.

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Warmly,

Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

The Republican Professor Podcast
The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack
https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/
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YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor
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Part 2: Last month on the 22nd of December 2025, Republican appointed federal Judge Roger Benitez (Cuban ethnicity) struck down the Democrat mandated lying to parents in the K-12 school system.

Unusual behavior or conduct of a student at school isn't grounds for a violation of Constitutional rights, Benitez held in Mirabelli v. Olson (Filed 22 Dec 2025), available here : https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63d954d4e4ad424df7819d46/6949e11ea6bae817c8eaf637_Dkt%20%20307_MSJ%20Order.pdf

Part 2. We cover from page 10, Roman Numeral II, through the first two-thirds of page 18 thru line 23. We'll continue from there next time.

This episode includes a reading from Psalm 65, in the King James Version of the Bible.

The Republican Professor is a pro-anti-tax-funded-abuse-of-parents podcast.

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

This is Part 9 in a series celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Harvard University Press' 1985 publication of Richard A. Epstein's "Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain."

We continue our celebration of this anniversary with a fair use and transformative reading, continuing and now finishing chapter 4 in a new section which Richard calls ""Takings Prima Facia," which makes the analogy between private law takings in the common law harm tradition and the public law takings where the government is a defendant. He titles chapter "Takings and Torts," because he's taking a look at political philosophy and the American constitutional order, how these things interact using argument by analogy with the common law/private law tradition, ensconced as it is in the purpose of the Constitution. That moral purpose is the protection of individual liberty against claims by a simple majority in a democracy, or by the government in a taking of private property.

Today we discuss the subsections of Proximate Causation and Consequential Damages from pp. 47 to the end of the chapter on p. 56.

At the end, this episode concludes with a reading of Psalm 33 in the NASB version.

Excellent stuff here. Excellent.

Every college student should read this book. It's a superb introduction to the political philosophy of the American regime. Praise the Lord.

We'd like to thank Harvard University Press for making this material available and Richard Epstein for writing it.

Make sure you buy the book and follow along.

It's very important for you to have your own copy on your own bookshelf, and to begin to master this material. Support your local book dealer. See if they have a copy of it, or if they'd mind keeping an eye out for you.

I always encourage buying physical books, objects you can have, hold, cherish, learn from, display on your bookshelf as a topic of conversation, things you can pass on to the next generation with your notes in them, things that do not depend upon electricity.

Toward that end:

Go to Harvard University Press for more selections available for purchase. Please support the publisher and your local booksellers.

The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-contemplating-property-rights podcast.

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Warmly,

Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

The Republican Professor Podcast
The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack
https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor
Twitter: @RepublicanProf
Instagram: @the_republican_professor

We're using the slip opinion this time, see below for a link. Why the Court's majority is wrong in Bostock v. Clayton County Georgia (2020) (part 10 in a series) about the faulty assumption that unexamined and unexplained transgenderism premises about sex and gender are properly included under "sex discrimination" language in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act --This continues to be a real hoot.

Part 10: We continue our in-depth examination of sex, gender, and separation of powers in the US Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, GA 590 U.S. 644 (2020): the Republican dispute, how to understand it, and what to do about it.

We continue discussing and we finish with the Republican dissenting opinion of Justice Alito (joined by Thomas) from his II.D through to the end.

Kavanaugh's dissent is next, and then we'll be done with this series.

Part 10.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf

The Republican Professor is a pro-separation-of-powers-rightly-construed podcast.

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Warmly,

Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

The Republican Professor Podcast
The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack
https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/
https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor
Twitter: @RepublicanProf
Instagram: @the_republican_professor

Claremont Review of Books published an issue in Summer 2025 where the question is posed on the cover, decorated by attractive art, "Will there always be an England?"

We're doing a fair use and transformative reading of an essay in one of my favorite publications. This is an engagement with an essay by Christopher Caldwell, one of my favorite writers on American Politics, entitled "Land's End" in Summer 2025 Claremont Review of Books pp 8-12.

The piece is accessible to the public at https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/lands-end-2/

It's the second piece in CRB history to have that title .

Kesler, Editor of the CRB, was one of my Ph.D. professors at Claremont Colleges (4 courses).

We want to thank Claremont Review of Books for making this material available. Go to ClaremontReviewofBooks.com to subscribe for a very reasonable price and get the hard copies with aesthetically pleasing artwork and thoughtful though accessible essays in your physical mailbox.

The Republican Professor is a pro-Claremont-Review-of-Books podcast.

The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.