Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on life Anthony Kenny, Thomas Laqueur, Shai Lavi, Lorraine Daston, Paul Rabinow, Robert P. George, Robert J. Richards, Nikolas Rose, John Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Broome, Jeff McMahan, and Adrian Woolfson Fall 2007 on nature Leo Marx, William Cronon, Cass Sunstein, Daniel Kevles, Bill McKibben, Harriet Ritvo, Gordon Orians, Camille Parmesan, Margaret Schabas, and Philip Tetlock & Michael Oppenheimer 2007: on the public interest Fall on the E. J. Dionne Jr. Why the public interest matters now 5 on cosmopolitanism Martha C. Nussbaum, Margaret C. Jacob, A. A. Long, Pheng Cheah, public interest William A. Galston An old debate renewed 10 Darrin McMahon, Helena Rosenblatt, Samuel Scheffler, Arjun Adam Wolfson From James Madison to Abraham Lincoln 20 Appadurai, Rogers Smith, Peter Brooks, and Craig Calhoun Nathan Glazer Reflections on an elusive goal 30 plus poetry by Ted Richer, C. D. Wright &c.; ½ction by Chris Abani, Jagdish Bhagwati Some implications for economic policy 37 Wesley Brown, Alix Ohlin &c.; and notes by Phyllis Coley, Don Gary Hart The commonwealth ideal 45 Harrán, Richard Kraut, Ian Ayres &c. Christine Todd Whitman Governing in the public interest: then & now 51 Robert N. Bellah Ethical politics: reality or illusion? 59 Amy Gutmann The dangers of extremist rhetoric 70 Lance Taylor Economists & the wealth of nations 79 poetry Molly McQuade Spring’s So Sad, We Want to Know Why 88 ½ction Mary Gordon Dilly 89 dialogue Cornel West & D. Graham Burnett On Melville’s The Con½dence-Man 101 notes Omer Bartov on Eastern Galicia’s past & present 115 Harriet Ritvo on the animal turn 118 U.S. $13; www.amacad.org Inside front cover: A centerfold from Harper’s Week- ly, engraved by Thomas Nast (1840–1902) to mark Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1863. That year, Thanksgiving fell in the midst of the Civil War, and seven days after Abraham Lincoln had delivered his Gettysburg Address, prophesying a nation born again, “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Nast depicts Lady Liberty kneeling in prayer, surrounded by inset images of a variety of other Americans in prayer, including President Lincoln. See William A. Galston on An old debate renewed: the politics of the public interest, pages 10–19: “The public inter- est can help us understand and seek a politics of common purpose . It seeks to summon what Abraham Lincoln called ‘the better angels of our nature.’” Image © Son of the South Material. James Miller, Editor of Dædalus Wiliam A. Galston and E. J. Dionne Jr., Consulting Editors for essays on the public interest Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications Esther Y. Chen, Assistant Editor Board of editors Steven Marcus, Editor of the Academy Russell Banks, Fiction Adviser Rosanna Warren, Poetry Adviser Joyce Appleby (u.s. history, ucla), Stanley Hoffmann (government, Harvard), Donald Kennedy (environmental science, Stanford), Martha C. Nussbaum (law and philosophy, Chicago), Neil J. Smelser (sociology, Berkeley), Steven Weinberg (physics, University of Texas at Austin); ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi (President of the Academy), Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (Chief Executive Of½cer) Editorial advisers Daniel Bell (sociology, Harvard), Michael Boudin (law, u.s. Court of Appeals), Wendy Doniger (religion, Chicago), Howard Gardner (education, Harvard), Carol Gluck (Asian history, Columbia), Stephen Greenblatt (English, Harvard), Thomas Laqueur (European history, Berkeley), Alan Lightman (English and physics, mit), Steven Pinker (psychology, Harvard), Diane Ravitch (education, nyu), Amartya Sen (economics, Harvard), Richard Shweder (human development, Chicago), Frank Wilczek (physics, mit) Contributing Editors Robert S. Boynton, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Pesic, Danny Postel Dædalus is designed by Alvin Eisenman Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences The pavement labyrinth once in the nave of Reims Cathedral (1240), in a drawing, with ½gures of the architects, by Jacques Cellier (c. 1550–1620). Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every ½eld of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its more than four thousand elected members, continues to provide intellectual leadership to meet the critical challenges facing our world. Dædalus Fall 2007 Subscription rates: Electronic only for non- Issued as Volume 136, Number 4 member individuals–$40; institutions–$99. Canadians add 6% gst. Print and electronic © 2007 by the American Academy for nonmember individuals–$44; institu- of Arts & Sciences tions–$110. Canadians add 6% gst. Outside Realizing the public interest: reflections on the United States and Canada add $23 for an elusive goal postage and handling. Prices subject to change © 2007 by Nathan Glazer without notice. Economic policy in the public interest © 2007 by Jagdish Bhagwati Institutional subscriptions are on a volume- Ethical politics: reality or illusion? year basis. All other subscriptions begin with © 2007 by Robert N. Bellah the next available issue. The lure & dangers of extremist rhetoric Single issues: current issues–$13; back issues © 2007 by Amy Gutmann for individuals–$13; back issues for institu- Spring’s So Sad, We Want to Know Why tions–$26. Outside the United States and © 2007 by Molly McQuade Canada add $5 per issue for postage and han- Dilly dling. Prices subject to change without notice. © 2007 by Mary Gordon Newsstand distribution by Ingram Periodicals Editorial of½ces: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, Inc., 18 Ingram Blvd., La Vergne tn 37086. 136 Irving Street, Cambridge ma 02138. Phone: 800 627 6247. Phone: 617 491 2600. Fax: 617 576 5088. Email: [email protected]. Claims for missing issues will be honored free of charge if made within three months of the Library of Congress Catalog No. 12-30299 publication date of the issue. Claims may be isbn 0-87724-066-3 submitted to [email protected]. Mem- bers of the American Academy please direct all Dædalus publishes by invitation only and as- questions and claims to [email protected]. sumes no responsibility for unsolicited manu- scripts. The views expressed are those of the Advertising and mailing-list inquiries may be author of each article, and not necessarily of addressed to Marketing Department, mit the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 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Address all other Printed in the United States of America by inquiries to the Subsidiary Rights Manager, Cadmus Professional Communications, mit Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Science Press Division, 300 West Chestnut Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2864. Street, Ephrata pa 17522. Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-rights@ Postmaster: Send address changes to Dædalus, mit.edu. 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge ma The typeface is Cycles, designed by Sumner 02142. Periodicals postage paid at Boston ma Stone at the Stone Type Foundry of Guinda and at additional mailing of½ces. ca. Each size of Cycles has been sep arately designed in the tradition of metal types. E. J. Dionne Jr. Why the public interest matters now There are cycles in American politics at all–found it captured in Abbie Hoff- beyond those involving Republicans and man’s Steal This Book. Democrats, left and right, progressive The Port Huron Statement, the New and conservative. There are also poles in Left’s classic statement of principles is- our history de½ned by liberty and com- sued in 1962, almost perfectly captured munity, the individual and the collective, the era’s tension between individual- the public and the private. ism and community. At one point, it de- The interplay among these is not al- clared: “As a social system we seek the ways clear. The New Left in the 1960s establishment of a democracy of individ- was both powerfully communitarian ual participation, governed by two cen- and strongly individualistic. One re- tral aims: that the individual share in vealing New Left manifesto carried the those social decisions determining the quintessentially communitarian title, quality and direction of his life; that so- The Right to Say We, even as it is hard ciety be organized to encourage inde- to ½nd a more radically individualistic pendence in men and provide the media movement than the Yippies, who–to for their common participation.” I have the extent that they had a philosophy added the emphasis on “individual” and “independence” on the one hand, and E.