The Humanist Art of Self-Defense

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

[The real problem for the academic humanists] was that they had guilty consciences about their vocations, unwilling or unable to mount a sturdy defense of their calling…. Put bluntly, the stewards of the humanist legacy ceased to believe in their vocations…they ceased to believe in any real stakes when it came to what they taught.”  

– David Polansky, The Human Condition or the Conditional Human, Hedgehog Review, Spring 2026

“…the horrific...