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Submissions
to Praesidium
At this point in The Center's
history, our main objective is to supply a quarterly journal fully in the
spirit of the Western tradition: informative yet enjoyable, well written
in terms both of sound argument and of fluidity, addressing issues of
concern to an audience of humane and civilized readers. We seldom
publish works whose content is highly specialized, and never works
whose presentation requires a mastery of jargon to be understood.
Some articles have been heavily footnoted, but most are not. We
prefer an immersion in primary texts to an ostentatious display of
secondary ones.
Though our editorial stance is
sometimes dictated by our conviction (a reluctant but necessary and
adult conclusion) that human reason has limits and that human illusion
is ineradicable, we have never refused to read any submission due to its
arguing from a certain persuasion. On the contrary, authors have
occasionally withdrawn submissions after deciding that public statements
such as this one are too "conservative". The fact is that
our distrust of utopian visions applies every bit as much to self-styled
conservative prophets of technological progress as it does to
"liberals" more interested in the Pied Piper than in meaningful
human freedom.
Topics
and Issues Frequently
Discussed in Praesidium
Below are several rubrics which help to define
the focus of such publications as The Center's journal Praesidium.
What this page offers is neither
an inclusive inventory nor and exclusive prescription. Our ken
circles far beyond the matters sketched out below. We are
particularly interested in creative works--poetry and short stories--of a
subtle nature wherein mystery is allowed to trump didacticism.
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contemporary academe
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The decline of the system due to mandatory ideology.
The "under-cover" service of ideology itself to career
advancement (e.g., "principled" stands like the denigration of
meticulous scholarship, the trimming of reading lists and narrowing of
research projects, the promotion of subjective writing, the validation of
anything new or trendy as a "discipline").
The self-annihilation of Humanities programs in their pompous
theoretical rejection of the disinterested and the universal.
The perversion of conventional methods of candidate interview,
course evaluation, and promotion on the contemporary campus to bring
faculty on board with certain narrow agendas.
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pedagogy
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The decline of student preparation for
higher education.
The decay of the broader culture's respect for honest study.
The acceptance of "fun" over rigor and of
"relevance" over enduring truth.
The politically motivated selection of texts.
Various quotas pursued in texts and syllabi at the expense of
coherence and depth.
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literature
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The case for classical aesthetics--i.e.,
beauty as largely independent of conditioning and universally grounded,
instead, in the human mind through ratiocinative structures of processing
sensory data.
The absurdity of recent literary theory which dismisses the
possibility of aesthetics merely because some small degree of cultural
conditioning affects the perception of some objects.
The relationship between artistic cultivation and moral maturity or
spiritual subtlety.
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religious issues
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The confrontation between charismatic
rapture and the sober pursuit of moral duty.
The "right-wing" rejection of personal insight, inner
revelation, and individual conscience as equivalent to rabid
self-indulgence.
The "left-wing" elevation of scientific (often
pseudo-scientific) measures of truth to serve as the basis for analyzing
moral and social issues.
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electronic media and
technology
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The relationship of electronic habits to
pre-literacy (orality)--likenesses and differences.
Electronic media and technology as a delivery system for values
(e.g., the superiority of speed and change, an ever-whetted appetite for
more, a radical disjuncture of everything present with the past, a
hostility to quiet and patient reflection).
The effect of computers on writing, both in the classroom and for
popular consumption.
The effect of media-immersion on the perception of reality.
The unwholesome ramifications of having our economy, national
defense, and best-funded educational initiatives all heavily dependent
upon computers.
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