Constraint, freedom, and exemplar: history and theory without teleology

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139003698.007

6 - Constraint, freedom, and exemplar: history and theory without teleology

from Part II - The challenge of realism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Melissa Lane

Edited by

Jonathan Floyd and

Marc Stears

Show author details

Melissa Lane: Affiliation:
Princeton University
Jonathan Floyd: Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Marc Stears: Affiliation:
University of Oxford

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Reading the newspaper early in the morning is a kind of realistic morning blessing.

(Hegel, Jena journal, published as ‘Aphorismen aus Hegels Wastebook’)

… the introduction of the parliamentary imbecility, including the obligation upon everyone to read his newspaper at breakfast.

(Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Part VI, § 208)

Is reading about historical events a blessing or a curse, or even an imbecility? Is it the royal road to political understanding, or a dark and damning diversion from true political principles? Plato invented the new genre of philosophical dialogue a little later than, and in distinction from, Thucydides’s invention of the new genre of contemporary historical reconstruction, yet for the inheritors of both, such as Plutarch, and those who read him, such as Rousseau, to reflect on the history of classical Athens and later Rome was an indispensable part of the emerging tradition of political theorising. It is only in light of certain developments, themselves historical, that the significance of history for normative political theory can even be put into question. Those developments have led to a state in which – to caricature, for the sake of emphasis – some theorists read Machiavelli and Hobbes, without feeling it essential to read their own sources such as Thucydides, Livy, Sallust, and Plutarch, while others dispense with all these prior writers in practising a pure theoretical construction or analysis.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Political Philosophy versus History?
Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought
, pp. 128 - 150

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139003698.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Hegel, G. W. F.Aphorismen aus Hegels WastebookWerkeMoldenhauer, E.Michel, K. M.Frankfurt am MainSuhrkamp 1970 547Google Scholar

Klein, S.Roochnik, D. L.Tucker, G. E.Independent Journal of Philosophyh 3 1979

Nietzsche, F.Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the FutureHollingdale, R. J.Tanner, M.LondonPenguin 2003 138Google Scholar

Nietzsche, F.Werke: Kritische GesamtausgabeColli, G.Montinari, M.BerlinWalter de Gruyter 1967Google Scholar

Tudor, H.Tudor, J. M.Marxism and Social Democracy: The Revisionist Controversy 1896–1898CambridgeCambridge University Press 1988

The Preconditions of SocialismTudor, H.CambridgeCambridge University Press 1993 209

Hughes, H. S.Consciousness and Society: The Reorientation of European Social Thought 1890–1930BrightonHarvester Press 1979 33Google Scholar

Lane, M.Positivism: reactions and developmentsBellamy, R.Ball, T.The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political ThoughtCambridgeCambridge University Press 2003 321Google Scholar

Baynes, K.The Normative Grounds of Social Criticism: Kant, Rawls, and HabermasAlbany, NYState University of New York Press 1992Google Scholar

Benhabib, S.Situating the Self: Gender, Community, and Postmodernism in Contemporary EthicsCambridgePolity Press 1992Google Scholar

Young, I. M.Justice and the Politics of DifferencePrinceton, NJPrinceton University Press 1990Google Scholar

Pogge, T.John Rawls. His Life and Theory of JusticeKosch, M.New YorkOxford University Press 2007 3CrossRef Google Scholar

The Company of Critics: Social Criticism and Political Commitment in the Twentieth CenturyNew YorkBasic Books 1988

Public Philosophy in a New Key, Vol. I: Democracy and Civic FreedomCambridgeCambridge University Press 2009

Plato. Complete WorksCooper, J. M.Hutchinson, D. S.CambridgeCambridge University Press 1997 294

Lane, M. S.Method and Politics in Plato’sCambridgeCambridge University Press 1998 163Google Scholar

Teisserenc, F.Les Études Philosophiques 3 2005 325

Philp, M.Political theory and historyLeopold, D.Stears, M.Political Theory: Methods and ApproachesNew YorkOxford University Press 1988 128Google Scholar

Tuck, RichardThe contribution of historyGoodin, R. E.Pettit, P.A Companion to Contemporary Political PhilosophyOxfordBlackwell 1996 72Google Scholar

Geuss, R.Philosophy and Real PoliticsPrinceton, NJPrinceton University Press 2008CrossRef Google Scholar

Pettit, P.Examen a ZapateroMadridTemas de Hoy 2008 19Google Scholar

Martí, J. L.Pettit, P.A Political Philosophy in Public Life: Civic Republicanism in Zapatero’s SpainPrinceton, NJPrinceton University Press 2010Google Scholar

Republicanism: a Theory of Freedom and GovernmentNew York and OxfordOxford University Press 1997

Blackshaw, G.Topp, L.Madness and Modernity: Mental Illness and the Visual Arts in Vienna 1900FarnhamLund Humphries 2009

Taylor, C.Modern Social ImaginariesDurham, NCDuke University Press 2004Google Scholar

Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism?OxfordClarendon Press 1995

Lane, M.Political theory and timeBaert, P.Time in Contemporary Intellectual ThoughtAmsterdam and New YorkElsevier 2000 233CrossRef Google Scholar

A Theory of JusticeCambridge, MABelknap Press of Harvard University Press 1999

Sewell, W.Logics of History: Social Theory and Social TransformationChicago and LondonUniversity of Chicago Press 2005CrossRef Google Scholar

Emergency Politics: Paradox, Law, DemocracyPrinceton, NJPrinceton University Press 2009 40

Maier, C.Consigning the twentieth century to history: alternative narratives for the modern eraAmerican Historical Review 105 2000 807CrossRef Google Scholar

Thompson, E. P.The Making of the English Working ClassLondonVictor Gollancz 1980Google Scholar

Hopkins, A. G.Globalization in World HistoryLondonPimlico 2002

Oren, M. B.Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the PresentNew YorkW.W. Norton & Co. 2007Google Scholar

Bevir, M.What is genealogyJournal of the Philosophy of History 2 2008 263CrossRef Google Scholar

Krupp, T.Genealogy as critiqueJournal of the Philosophy of History 2 2008 315CrossRef Google Scholar

Arendt, H.The Life of the MindNew YorkHarcourt 1981 60Google Scholar

Liberty before LiberalismCambridgeCambridge University Press 1998 119

Skinner, Q.Meaning and understanding in the history of ideasHistory and Theory 8 1969 3CrossRef Google Scholar

Tully, J.Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his CriticsPrinceton, NJPrinceton University Press 1988 29Google Scholar

Hamilton-Bleakley, H.Linguistic philosophy and Brett, A.Tully, J.Hamilton-Bleakley, H.Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political ThoughtCambridgeCambridge University Press 2006 20Google Scholar

Skinner, Q.Interpretation’, 126, a point which he footnotes as being ‘much influenced byMacIntyre, A.Against the Self-Images of the AgeNotre Dame, INUniversity of Notre Dame Press 1971 viiiGoogle Scholar

Nietzsche, F.On the uses and disadvantages of history for lifeUntimely MeditationsHollingdale, R. J.Stern, J. P.CambridgeCambridge University Press 1983 57Google Scholar

Pocock, J. G. A.The historian as political actor in polity, society and academyPolitical Thought and History: Essays on Theory and MethodCambridgeCambridge University Press 2009 223Google Scholar

Keohane, N. O.Thinking about LeadershipPrinceton, NJPrinceton University Press 2010Google Scholar

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and MoneyNew YorkHoughton, Mifflin, Harcourt 1964 383

Pocock, J. G. A.Quentin Skinner: the history of politics and the politics of history 2004 Political Thought and History 123 42Google Scholar

Rawls, JohnThe idea of public reasonPolitical LiberalismNew YorkColumbia University Press 1996 212Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.