Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T21:47:13.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Political Philosophy and the Uses of History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2022

By
Quentin Skinner
Edited by
Richard Bourke  and
Quentin Skinner
Richard Bourke
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Quentin Skinner
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
Get access

Summary

The chapter begins by tracing the rise of the so-called ‘historicist’ approach to the study of texts in political philosophy. The example of Thomas Hobbes’s philosophy is discussed in such a way as to illustrate what is distinctive about the historicist approach. The chapter then turns to consider two objections frequently raised against this approach. One claims that ‘a tyranny of history’ has been allowed to develop, which has had the effect of cutting off the study of legal and political philosophy from a usable part. The other maintains that historicists fail to appreciate that some claims about political phenomena are transhistorical and universal in scope. After considering and largely rejecting these arguments, the chapter ends by examining the more recent objection that the history of political philosophy as currently written is an unduly parochial discipline, which now needs to concentrate on developing a more global approach. The chapter concludes with an assessment of this so-called global turn.

Keywords

Historypolitical philosophyrepublicanism
Type
Chapter
Information
History in the Humanities and Social Sciences , pp. 194 - 210
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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.)

References

Ackerly, Brooke and Bajpai, Rochana. 2017. ‘Comparative Political Thought’ in Methods in Analytical Political Theory, ed. Blau, Adrian. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Armitage, David. 2014. ‘The International Turn in Intellectual History’ in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, ed. McMahon, Darrin and Moyn, Samuel. Oxford.Google Scholar
Austin, J. L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford.Google Scholar
Ball, Terence. 2011. ‘The Value of the History of Political Philosophy’ in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy, ed. Klosko, George. Oxford.Google Scholar
Berlin, Isaiah. 1962. ‘Does Political Theory Still Exist?’ in Philosophy, Politics and Society, second series, ed. Laslett, Peter and Runciman, W. G.. Oxford.Google Scholar
Bird, Gemma. 2018. ‘I’ll Pass on Plato’, Times Higher Education, 1 November, p. 31.Google Scholar
Blau, Adrian. 2017. ‘Interpreting Texts’ in Methods in Analytical Political Theory, ed. Blau, Adrian. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blau, Adrian. 2020. ‘Meanings and Understandings in the History of Ideas’, Journal of the Philosophy of History, 14, pp. 232–56.Google Scholar
Boucher, David. 1985. Texts in Context: Revisionist Methods for Studying the History of Ideas. Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Broad, Jacqueline and Detlefsen, Karen, eds. 2017. Women and Liberty 1600–1800: Philosophical Essays. Oxford.Google Scholar
Carter, Ian. 1999. A Measure of Freedom. Oxford.Google Scholar
Carter, Ian. 2008. ‘How are Power and Unfreedom Related?’ in Republicanism and Political Theory, ed. Laborde, Cécile and Maynor, John. Oxford.Google Scholar
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2000. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton.Google Scholar
Charette, Danielle and Skjönsberg, Max. 2020. ‘State of the Field: The History of Political Thought’, History, 105, pp. 470–83.Google Scholar
Cooper, Frederick. 2001. ‘What is the Concept of Globalisation Good for? An African Historian’s Perspective’, African Affairs, 100, pp. 189–213.Google Scholar
Dallmayr, Fred. 2010. Comparative Political Theory: An Introduction. New York.Google Scholar
Dunn, John. 1968. ‘The Identity of the History of Ideas’, Philosophy, 43, pp. 85–104.Google Scholar
Dunn, John. 2018. ‘Why we Need a Global History of Political Thought’ in Markets, Morals, Politics: Jealousy of Trade and the History of Political Thought, ed. Kapossy, Béla, Nakhimovsky, Isaac, Reinert, Sophus and Whatmore, Richard. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Fleischer, Cornell, Kafadar, Cemal and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. 2020. ‘How to Write Fake Global History’, Cromohs, 10, https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php.cromohs/debate.Google Scholar
Floyd, Jonathan. 2011. ‘From Historical Contextualism, to Mentalism, to Behaviourism’ in Political Philosophy versus History?, ed. Floyd, Jonathan and Stears, Marc. Oxford.Google Scholar
Freeden, Michael and Vincent, Andrew, eds. 2013. Comparative Political Thought: Theorising Practices. London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gauthier, David P. 1969. The Logic of Leviathan: The Moral and Political Theory of Thomas Hobbes. Oxford.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, M. M. 1966. Hobbes’s Science of Politics. New York.Google Scholar
Goodin, Robert E. 2003. ‘Folie Républicaine’, Annual Review of Political Science, 6, pp. 55–76.Google Scholar
Gordon, Peter. 2014. ‘Contextualism and Criticism in the History of Ideas’ in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, ed. McMahon, Darrin and Moyn, Samuel. Oxford.Google Scholar
Graham, Gordon. 2011. ‘Political Philosophy and the Dead Hand of its History’ in Political Philosophy versus History?, ed. Floyd, Jonathan and Stears, Marc. Oxford.Google Scholar
Harlan, David. 1989. ‘Intellectual History and the Return of Literature’, American Historical Review, 94, pp. 581–609.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 2010 [1682]. Behemoth or the Long Parliament, ed. Seaward, Paul. Oxford.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 2012 [1651]. Leviathan, ed. Malcolm, Noel. 3 vols. Oxford.Google Scholar
Hood, F. C. 1964. The Divine Politics of Thomas Hobbes: An Interpretation of Leviathan. Oxford.Google Scholar
Kapila, Shruti. 2014. ‘Global Intellectual History and the Indian Political’ in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, ed. McMahon, Darrin and Moyn, Samuel. Oxford.Google Scholar
Kapust, Daniel and Kinsella, Helen, eds. 2017. Comparative Political Theory in Time and Place. New York.Google Scholar
Kelly, Paul. 2011. ‘Rescuing Political Theory from the Tyranny of History’ in Political Philosophy versus History?, ed Floyd, Jonathan and Stears, Marc. Oxford.Google Scholar
Klosko, George, ed. 2011. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy. Oxford.Google Scholar
Koskenniemi, Martti. 2014. ‘Vitoria and Us: Thoughts on Critical Histories of International Law’, Rechsgeschichte, 22, pp. 119–38.Google Scholar
Kramer, Matthew. 2003. The Quality of Freedom. Oxford.Google Scholar
Kramer, Matthew. 2008. ‘Liberty and Domination’ in Republicanism and Political Theory, ed. Laborde, Cécile and Maynor, John. Oxford.Google Scholar
LaCapra, Dominick. 1980. ‘Rethinking Intellectual History and Reading Texts’, History and Theory, 19, pp. 245–76.Google Scholar
Laursen, John. 2013. ‘Five Questions’ in Intellectual History: Five Questions, ed. Jeppesen, Morten, Stjernfelt, Frederik and Thorup, Mikkel. London.Google Scholar
Leader Maynard, Jonathan. 2017. ‘Ideological Analysis’ in Methods in Analytical Political Theory, ed. Blau, Adrian. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Genevieve, ed. 2002. Feminism and the History of Philosophy. Oxford.Google Scholar
McMahon, Darrin. 2014. ‘The Return of the History of Ideas?’ in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, ed. McMahon, Darrin and Moyn, Samuel. Oxford.Google Scholar
McNeilly, F. S. 1968. The Anatomy of Leviathan. London.Google Scholar
Mills, Charles. 2015. ‘Decolonizing Western Political Philosophy’, New Political Science, 37, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar
Moyn, Samuel. 2014. ‘Imaginary Intellectual History’ in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, ed. McMahon, Darrin and Moyn, Samuel. Oxford.Google Scholar
Moyn, Samuel and Sartori, Andrew, eds. 2013. Global Intellectual History. New York.Google Scholar
Müller, Jan-Werner. 2014. ‘On Conceptual History’ in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, ed. McMahon, Darrin and Moyn, Samuel. Oxford.Google Scholar
Obregón, Liliana. 2017. ‘Martti Koskenniemi’s Critique of Eurocentrism in International Law’ in The Law of International Lawyers, ed. Werner, Wouter, de Hoon, Marieke and Galan, Alexis. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Orford, Anne. 2017. ‘International Law and the Limits of History’ in The Law of International Lawyers, ed. Werner, Wouter, de Hoon, Marieke and Galan, Alexis. Cambridge.Google Scholar
[Parker, Henry]. 1640. The Case of Shipmony briefly discoursed. London.Google Scholar
Patten, Alan. 1996. ‘The Republican Critique of Liberalism’, British Journal of Political Science, 26, pp. 25–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 1997. Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford.Google Scholar
Pocock, J. G. A. 1962. ‘The History of Political Thought: A Methodological Enquiry’ in Philosophy, Politics and Society, ed. Laslett, Peter and Runciman, W. G., Oxford.Google Scholar
Pocock, J. G. A. 2019. ‘On the Unglobality of Contexts: Cambridge Methods and the History of Political Thought’, Global Intellectual History, 4, pp. 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podoksik, Efraim. 2010. ‘One Concept of Liberty: Towards Writing the History of a Political Concept’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 71, pp. 219–40.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richter, Melvin. 2001. ‘A German Version of the “Linguistic Turn”: Reinhart Koselleck and the History of Political and Social Concepts’ in The History of Political Thought in National Context, ed. Castiglione, Dario and Hampsher-Monk, Iain. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Searle, John. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1969. ‘Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas’, History and Theory, 8, pp. 3–53.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 1998. Liberty before Liberalism. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 2002a. Visions of Politics, vol. I: Regarding Method. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 2002b. Visions of Politics, vol. III: Hobbes and Civil Science. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 2022. ‘On Neo-Roman Liberty: A Response and Reassessment’ in Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism, ed. Dawson, Hannah and de Dijn, Annelien. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Tarlton, Charles. 1973. ‘Historicity, Meaning and Revisionism in the Study of Political Thought’, History and Theory, 12, pp. 307–28.Google Scholar
Tully, James. 2014. On Global Citizenship: James Tully in Dialogue. London.Google Scholar
Tully, James. 2018. ‘Reconciliation Here on Earth’ in Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous–Settler Relations and Earth Teachings, ed. Asch, Michael, Borrows, John and Tully, James. Toronto.Google Scholar
Tully, James. 2020. ‘Deparochializing Political Theory and Beyond: A Dialogue Approach to Comparative Political Thought’ in Deparochializing Political Theory, ed. Williams, Melissa S.. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Warrender, Howard. 1957. The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: His Theory of Obligation. Oxford.Google Scholar
Whatmore, Richard. 2016. ‘Quentin Skinner and the Relevance of Intellectual History’ in A Companion to Intellectual History, ed. Whatmore, Richard and Young, Brian. Oxford.Google Scholar
Williams, Melissa S. and Warren, Mark E.. 2014. ‘A Democratic Case for Comparative Political Theory’, Political Theory, 42, pp. 26–57.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×