Response to Morton J. Frisch and to Martin Diamond

John C. Koritansky. "Response to Morton J. Frisch and to Martin Diamond." The Political Science Reviewer 28.1 (Fall 1999): 98-101.

Excerpt:

The broad purpose of Professor Frisch’s paper is to explain, as being cogent, Martin Diamond’s understanding of The Federalist Papers as at least the closest approximation to genuine political philosophy that exists within the broader category of American political thought. To this end, Frisch attempts to show that Diamond’s understanding is sounder than that of Douglass Adair, whose broad and thorough scholarship was nevertheless limited by a reading of the liberal philosophy of Hobbes and Locke that was less sophisticated than Diamond’s. Adair was either less aware or less impressed by the profound agreement between Hamilton and Madison regarding the fundamental nature of political society and the basic problem to which government was understood by them to be the solution. As a result, where Adair saw divergence and even opposition between Hamilton and Madison, Diamond saw rather a division of labor and a certain difference in stress but not amounting to grounds for contradictory recommendations.

Online:
First Principles [pdf]