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Acknowledgments In writing this book I have benefited from contacts with many individuals. lowe a large debt of gratitude to Rene de Visme Williamson. He has given very generously of his learning, wisdom, and personal warmth. In a sense of the word representative that he would recognize, he is truly a representative Christian scholar. To my friend Folke Leander , a penetrating and creative philosopher and also a great teacher, go my deep-felt thanks for having contributed more than I can say to the solution of philosophical problems that are at the core of this book. I am indebted in numerous ways to Russell Kirk. His books have profoundly influenced my outlook ever since I made them extra-curricular reading as a young student at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Several years later it was becoming clear that my rejection of positivism and moral relativism, which have a monopoly in Swedish academic circles, would seriously impair, not to say preclude, a career of scholarship in my own country. With his usual kindness Kirk then offered some invaluable advice about coming to the United States. For this I am most genuinely thankful. It brought me into contact with Rene de Visme Williamson and led to the continuation of my academic work in a very hospitable country with room for more than one school of thought. Many others have my gratitude for ideas, advice, and support. ix x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although I have drawn heavily on many thinkers past and present, their ideas have been absorbed here into an argument of my own. Needless to say, I alone must bear the blame for the possible shortcomings of the synthesis presented in this book. Washington, D.C. July, 1977 Claes G. Ryn ...

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