Seeking the Moral Ground of Originalism: Following the Path and Revelations of Professor Alicea

Hadley Arkes*

Aristotle alerted us to the path of hope, while conveying some sobering and surprising news: that political science may deliver us, and especially young people, from living a life marked by “a succession of unrelated emotional experiences.”¹ “To one who is like that, knowledge [of the principles of politics] is as unprofitable as it is to the morally unstable. On the other hand, for those whose desires and actions have a rational basis, a knowledge of these principles of morals must be of great advantage.”²

Political science, at its best, was the science of reflecting on the principles of justice, the nature of the just political order, and the things that may be rightly imposed on people with the force of law. And so the life of politics and law persistently raises the question of whether there is some principled ground that connects the judgments we make this week with the judgments we made last week—or in the weeks and years to come. It puts the question of whether we have a principled ground for our motivations and for the decisions we make in the laws—or in our personal lives. It puts the question then of the moral justification for the Constitution and laws we put in place.

Continue reading in the print edition . . .

© 2026 Hadley Arkes. Individuals and nonprofit institutions may reproduce and distribute copies of this Article in any format at or below cost, for educational purposes, so long as each copy identifies the author, provides a citation to the Notre Dame Law Review, and includes this provision in the copyright notice.

* Edward N. Ney Professor Emeritus in American Institutions, Amherst College; Founder and Co-Director, James Wilson Institute.

1 HADLEY ARKES, FIRST THINGS: AN INQUIRY INTO THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MORALS AND JUSTICE, at v (1986) (translating ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 1095a).

2 Id.