Bradley C.S. Watson

Bradley C. S. Watson is a Canadian-born American political science educator, lawyer, and writer, and a member of the “West Coast Straussian”^[1] school of political thought.

He is professor of politics at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he holds the Philip M. McKenna Chair in American and Western Political Thought. He is co-director of the college’s Center for Political and Economic Thought, a public policy educational and research institute dedicated to advancing “scholarship on philosophical and policy concerns related to freedom and Western civilization with particular regard to the American experience.” ^[2] He has held visiting faculty appointments at Princeton University and Claremont McKenna College. He is a fellow of several think tanks, and a Senior Scholar at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.^[3]

He was born in Toronto and educated in Canada, Belgium, and the United States, earning a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, a J.D. from Queen's University Faculty of Law in Kingston, Ontario, an M.Phil. from the Institute of Philosophy, University of Leuven (Louvain), Belgium, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University in California.^[4]

His publications concentrate on several themes: the unfolding of the liberal idea in the modern world, particularly through courts of law;^[5] the problems and prospects of higher education, particularly civic education, in liberal societies; ^[6] and the strengths and weaknesses of the West in the face of an illiberal foe—Islamism. ^[7]

Watson is a critic of American progressivism. He has appeared on the Glenn Beck television program to discuss his book Living Constitution, Dying Faith: Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence.^[8] He has argued that the idea of a “living constitution,” which he traces largely to social Darwinism and pragmatism,^[9] undermines the American founders’ Constitution dedicated to fixed natural truths, and is a slippery slope toward moral and political nihilism^[10] He has also been critical of both legal positivism and the deontological liberalism of John Rawls, arguing that they fail to provide a stable foundation for constitutional interpretation, ^[11] and of same-sex marriage, arguing that it is antithetical to moral realism and essentialism.^[12]

Although West Coast Straussianism is usually understood to be a version of political conservatism,^[13] Watson has been attacked from various points on the conservative spectrum, including by Harry V. Jaffa, the acknowledged founder of the West Coast Straussians. ^[14] Jaffa has suggested that Watson is insufficiently critical of the legal positivism of conservative Judge Robert H. Bork, ^[15] while others have suggested he is too critical. ^[16] Meanwhile, traditionalist conservatives have denied Watson’s claim that universal philosophical principles played an important role in the American founding.^[17]

Watson has defended both natural rights philosophy and cultural traditions as essential elements of the American experience, and of a complete understanding of the U.S. Constitution.^[18]

References

1. Mark C. Henrie, “Straussianism,” First Principles: ISI Web Journal, http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=871&theme=home&loc=b
2. Saint Vincent College, Center for Political and Economic Thought, http://www.stvincent.edu/cpet/
3. Saint Vincent College, http://www.stvincent.edu/Majorands__Programs/Majors_and_Programs/Public_Policy/Bradley_C_S__Watson/ ; National Endowment for the Humanities/Witherspoon Institute, Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism, http://www.nlnrac.org/contributors#contributing_scholars
4. Who’s Who in America, 60th ed., (2006).
5. Living Constitution, Dying Faith: Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence (2009), Civil Rights and the Paradox of Liberal Democracy (1999), Courts and the Culture Wars, ed. (2002), Ourselves and Our Posterity: Essays in Constitutional Originalism, ed. (2010).
6. Civic Education and Culture, ed. (2005), The Idea of the American University, ed. (2011).
7. The West at War, ed. (2006)
8. The Glenn Beck Show, Fox News Channel (June 11, 2009).
9. “Darwin’s Constitution,” National Review (May 17, 2010).)
10. “The Curious Constitution of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.,” National Review (December 31, 2009).
11. “A Plea for Positivism,” Claremont Review of Books (Winter 2010/Spring 2011), “The Old Race of Judges,” Claremont Review of Books (Fall 2009), review of John Rawls, Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy, International Philosophical Quarterly (June 2008), “Behind the Veil of Ignorance,” Claremont Review of Books (Fall 2007).
12. “Love’s Language Lost,” Claremont Review of Books (Spring 2005), “Same Sex Marriage in Canada: A Guide for American Legislators,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder (2005), “As California Goes, So Goes the Nation,” First Principles: ISI Web Journal, http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=973&loc=qs
13. Henrie, ibid.
14. “Harry V. Jafa,” Harry_V._Jaffa
15. Harry V. Jaffa, letter to the editor, Claremont Review of Books (Winter 2009/10)
16. Jeffrey H. Anderson, letter to the editor, Claremont Review of Books (Winter 2009/10)
17. Kevin R. C. Gutzman, “There is No American Creed,” http://archive.lewrockwell.com/gutzman/gutzman11.html
18. ‘Creed & Culture in the American Founding,” The Intercollegiate Review 41, no. 2 (Fall 2006).