The Ethical Basis of Life and Letters
Edited with Introductions by Eric Adler and Claes G. Ryn
University of Missouri Press, 2026 (forthcoming)
Publisher’s Description:
Folke Leander (1910-1981) was a prolific and internationally known Swedish philosopher. He is best known in the United States as an explicator of the New Humanism, an informal movement of literary and cultural criticism founded by Paul Elmer More (1864-1937) and Irving Babbitt (1865-1933).
Leander’s manuscript for The Philosophy of Paul Elmer More was completed in the early 1970s, but because of the academic environment at the time and the book’s special philosophical focus, Leander was unable to find a publisher. Since then, the work existed only as a typescript, a copy of which he left with Claes G. Ryn, his former student and collaborator, in the hope that one day in more favorable intellectual circumstances it might be published.
Leander is rare among the scholars of the New Humanism for his first-rate philosophical training, depth of insight, and clarity of expression. In The Philosophy of Paul Elmer More he grapples carefully and precisely with the most fundamental tenets of the New Humanism. Although very supportive of the movement, Leander provides essential critiques of its contentions – and even improves upon some of them in crucial respects. In a series of concise, limpid chapters, he explains and assesses such fundamental – but often hazily understood – Humanist concepts as the “inner check,” “naturalism,” and “the higher will.” The result is a book essential for anyone who wants to understand the New Humanism.
About the Author and the Editors:
Folke Leander (1910-1981) was an internationally recognized Swedish philosopher whose thought ranged widely from moral philosophy and aesthetics to epistemology and whose scholarship focused on such subjects as the New Humanism, John Dewey, and Benedetto Croce.
Eric Adler is Professor of Classical Studies and Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Maryland. His scholarship focuses on the history of the humanities, Roman historiography, and the history of classical studies. In addition to many scholarly articles, Adler has written three monographs: Valorizing the Barbarians: Enemy Speeches in Roman Historiography (University of Texas Press, 2011); Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond (University of Michigan Press, 2016); and The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today (Oxford University Press, 2020). Deeply interested in the New Humanist movement, he is also the editor of Humanistic Letters: The Irving Babbitt – Paul Elmer More Correspondence (University of Missouri Press, 2023).
Claes G. Ryn is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Distinguished Senior Scholar and Founding Director Emeritus of the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America, where he Chaired his department. His scholarship focuses on ethics and politics, politics and culture, the history of Western political thought, and epistemology. His many books include Democracy and the Ethical Life (The Catholic University of American Press, 1990), America the Virtuous (Routledge, 2003), A Common Human Ground (University of Missouri Press, 2003), and, most recently, The Failure of American Conservatism and the Road Not Taken (Republic Book Publishers, 2023). In 2012 he was named Honorary Professor at Beijing Normal University. He served as president of the Philadelphia Society, Chairman and co-founder of the National Humanities Institute, and President and co-founder of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters.
JOB’s Comment:
Jan Olof Bengtsson 