Paul Goodman Replies

I don’t want to answer Mike Walzer in any detail, since much of what he says by way of criticism I also strongly affirm in my book—he is not a close reader. Perhaps I write too much in the old style, of meaning what I say pretty exactly, including the little concessive clauses, and people aren’t used to this any more.

There seems to be one simple misunderstanding that I can mention for purposes of dialogue. Mike assumes that there is normally such a thing as an isolated i...