Moral Sense and Society

John J. DiIulio Jr., Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2012.

Excerpt:

A one-time New Deal government employee and enthusiast, Banfield became a self-described “vintage Burkean conservative.” His early career had him immersed in the social sciences that promised deliverance from urban ills via urban planning. But he shook off those illusions decades before doing so became fashionable, arguing that the limits of rationality, the realities of practical politics, and the moral conflicts that underlie all political choices, render the experts’ government-backed quest to “solve” complex human problems a pseudo-sophisticated fool’s errand.

Online:
Claremont Review of Books