Reason and Politics: The Nature of Political Phenomena examines the central phenomena of political life in order to clarify their meaning, source, and range. Mark Blitz gives particular attention to the notions of freedom, rights, justice, virtue, power, property, nationalism, and the common good. At the same time, Blitz shows how, in order to understand political matters correctly, we must also understand how they affect us directly. We do not merely theorize over political questions; we experience them. Blitz also considers matters such as the powers and motions of the soul, the nature of experience, and the varieties of pleasure and attachment.

Living at a time when technological change makes it difficult even to claim convincingly that there are defining human characteristics and natural limits that we simply cannot change, Reason and Politics proposes that there are in fact basic phenomena not only in politics, but that make up human affairs as such. In examining these central phenomena in a lucid and articulate manner, this book makes a unique contribution not only to the study of politics but also to the study of philosophy more broadly. It will interest undergraduate and graduate students, political scientists and philosophers, those interested in politics, and general readers.

The book is published by University of Notre Dame Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

“A remarkable inquiry...One may have to go back all the way to Hobbes to read a book of a comprehensiveness similar to Reason and Politics.” (Svetozar Y. Minkov, author of Leo Strauss on Science)

"A work of high political philosophy that is at once clear and accessible." (Law and Liberty)

"A radical, thought-provoking departure from the reigning orthodoxies of the profession." (Choice)