The Story
Between the cliché that 'a week is a long time in politics' and the aspiration of many political philosophers to give their ideas universal, timeless validity lies a gulf which the history of political thought is uniquely qualified to bridge. For that history shows that no conception of politics has dispensed altogether with time, and many have explicitly sought legitimacy in association with forms of history. Ranging from Justinian's law codes to rival Protestant and Catholic visions of political community after the Fall, from Hobbes and Spinoza to the Scottish Enlightenment, and from Kant and Savigny to the legacy of German Historicism and the Algerian Revolution, this volume explores multiple ways in which different conceptions of time and history have been used to understand politics since late antiquity. Bringing together leading contemporary historians of political thought, Time, History, and Political Thought demonstrates just how much both time and history have enriched the political imagination.
- Shows the richness and complexity of the ways in which philosophers and political agents have invoked and used concepts of time and forms of history to develop their political thinking
- Explores the significance of the 'temporal turn' in historical studies for the history of political thought
- Includes contributions by leading historians of political thought from late antiquity to the late 20th century, covering all major periods, canonical and non-canonical thinkers, and key themes and problems in the field
Description
Between the cliché that 'a week is a long time in politics' and the aspiration of many political philosophers to give their ideas universal, timeless validity lies a gulf which the history of political thought is uniquely qualified to bridge. For that history shows that no conception of politics has dispensed altogether with time, and many have explicitly sought legitimacy in association with forms of history. Ranging from Justinian's law codes to rival Protestant and Catholic visions of political community after the Fall, from Hobbes and Spinoza to the Scottish Enlightenment, and from Kant and Savigny to the legacy of German Historicism and the Algerian Revolution, this volume explores multiple ways in which different conceptions of time and history have been used to understand politics since late antiquity. Bringing together leading contemporary historians of political thought, Time, History, and Political Thought demonstrates just how much both time and history have enriched the political imagination.
- Shows the richness and complexity of the ways in which philosophers and political agents have invoked and used concepts of time and forms of history to develop their political thinking
- Explores the significance of the 'temporal turn' in historical studies for the history of political thought
- Includes contributions by leading historians of political thought from late antiquity to the late 20th century, covering all major periods, canonical and non-canonical thinkers, and key themes and problems in the field
