Harvey Mansfield

American political philosopher · United States · On the map · Academics · Born 1932 · age 94

Harvey Claflin Mansfield Jr. is an American political philosopher. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he taught from 1962 until his retirement in 2023. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center.

Harvey Mansfield is read about 93 times a day, in 12 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 19 September 2026

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A life in dates

2007“Science wants the fruits of science, and it does not tolerate much doubt about the goodness of those fruits. ...”In their wordsFull text onlineRead the whole statement

“Identity is as foreign to science as the good, and just as the good is reduced to something palpable, one’s own is raised to something vaguer but shareable.”In their wordsFull text onlineRead the whole statement

“People want to stand for something, which means opposing those who stand for something else.”In their wordsFull text onlineRead the whole statement

“The notion of thumos tells us further that politics is about protection, not primarily about gain.”In their wordsFull text onlineRead the whole statement

“Having eliminated the soul, modern science cannot understand the body in its most important aspect, which is its capacity for self-importance.”In their wordsFull text onlineRead the whole statement

“Science, according to science, ought to be the most important attribute of human beings.”In their wordsFull text onlineRead the whole statement

Jefferson LectureAward2004National Humanities MedalAward1970Guggenheim FellowshipAward1932Born21 March 1932

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Harvey Mansfield

4 statements, newest first

The way out from complication and doubt is to reduce the good to pleasure, something close to the body, or to utility, something useful to the body. ...
2007 · Full text online, Own words
Self-interest, when simple, is universal; I would do the same as you. I would be propelled toward an obvious good, or toward a good I thought obvious.
2007 · Full text online, Own words
Sociobiology reduces the human to the animal instead of observing how the animal becomes human.
2007 · Full text online, Own words