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serve as the final word and the answer to all our questions. This is not to say that an ideologi- cal system is incapable of answering questions and, with the right kind of luck, arriving at some great truth. Yet it is to say that such good fortune is unlikely, and that the student of political theory who engages in the love of wisdom, politically directed, remains fully aware that, as Socrates once observed, ‘‘human knowledge is a poor thing.’’ Theory does not aban- don knowledge because of human limitations, but, on the contrary, courts wisdom in humility. With ideology, it is certainty that is courted, but not the certainty of the objec- tively right choice between freedom and totalitarianism, for such certainty is self-evident and in need of neither theory nor ideology. Rather, the certainty of the ideologue is shaped more by pride than recognition of self-evident truths. Whereas the theorist must always maintain an attitude of modesty in the pursuit of wisdom (which is itself a requirement that likely eludes all of us), the ideologue is the product of the marriage of conviction and pride. To stand by one’s convictions on a personal level requires a steady soul, a character trait always to be recommended to the serious person. Ideology, however, tends toward the prideful, distorting a virtue into a vice and corrupting the rightful love of wisdom through a lower orientation that now directs one’s love toward power. Whereas theory always remains aloof to power, as Plato observed long ago, ideology, even when reasonable, seeks power, and typically finds it through the compromise of the very certainty that it claims. And yet our proclivity toward the comfort of ideological affirmation is something that we are unlikely to outgrow, if indeed it is something to be outgrown. The love of wisdom is always frustrated: hence the appeal of the ideological system that enables us to draw readily on the answers that we need and the programs for change that we instinctively know must be proposed, contested, and applied. Because ideology deals with ideas, it does not always steer us toward the wrong kind of life, but the element of pride and the closing of inquiry adds that risk, which in turn causes the theoretical approach to become even more vital in our times. If we are ‘‘spinning through cold space,’’ as Nietzsche feared, then our desperation for certainty—our certainty provided by us on our terms—causes extremity of action, and at the extremes, the borderlines at which our humanity touches something more savage, vio- lence becomes the only tangible certainty—that is, the only thing that is certain to follow. Ideas, those ideas that are better for human beings to hold, can pull us away from such extremes, but only if the ideas are held with humility, having been discovered through the pursuit of wisdom rather than spurred onward by the desire for power or the need for control. Students of ideas already know this, and come to their studies in the recognition that even objective truth is not absolutely known. The love of wisdom is always partially unrequited, but never abandoned, and always ennobling. It is an arduous journey up and out of the cave that Plato described, but a journey that is to be eagerly undertaken in the full knowledge that one is always arriving without ever having arrived. This encyclopedia is meant to aid in the departure and hope for the arriving, but even should every word be read, memorized, and understood in a way that surpasses the author’s poor powers, the reader will yet be far from having arrived. This volume is at best a first step, and perhaps not even that. From here all lovers of wisdom will quickly move on and up, and ultimately beyond this compendium of fragments and hopeful introductions to the world of ideas. If this text is to serve any useful purpose, it will be to provide a framework and reference from which longer and deeper adventures can begin. It is hoped that this text can provide auspicious beginnings and encourage all students of ideas to consider the possibility of values and principles that are worthy of the right kind of love. xii PREFACE