199 – Getting Friendly with John von Heyking

Friendship is one of the last words you might associate with politics these days.  Yet John von Heyking believes recovering a proper, classical understanding of friendship is precisely what our civic order needs to function.  Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis and John discuss the differences in how the ancients and medievals viewed friendship and how it's been undervalued by us moderns.  They also discuss the important need for civic education and why America has to import Canadians like John to teach American civics.

About John von Heyking

Bio from Arizona State University

John von Heyking is Associate Director and Professor at the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, where he teaches courses in political philosophy.  He is author of Comprehensive Judgment and Absolute Selflessness: Winston Churchill on Politics as Friendship (2018), The Form of Politics: Aristotle and Plato on Friendship (2016), and Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World (2001). He has coedited numerous volumes including two volumes of the Collected Works of Eric Voegelinand, most recently, Friendship Studies: Politics and Practices Across Cultures (2024). He has published scholarly articles on topics including liberal and civic education, friendship, personhood, resistance to totalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, empire, Islamic political thought, punishment, and religious liberty. His scholarly essays and articles have appeared in numerous volumes and journals, including Cambridge Journal of China Studies, Review of Politics, History of Political Thought, Supreme Court Law Review, Perspectives on Political Science, Political Science Reviewer, History of Human Sciences, International Political Anthropology, and the University of British Columbia Law Review. His popular writing has been published by Finest Hour, Voegelinview, American Oxonian, Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, C2C: Canada's Journal of Ideas, Troy Media, and Convivium.

Transcripts

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