Meaning and Context - Quentin Skinner and his critics

353 Pages·1988·6.29 MB·English

by  James Tully (ed.)

<x
CONTEXT
Q uentin Skinner
and his Critics

Copyright ©J.»mes Tully and Quentin Skinner 1988
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging* in-Publica non Data
Meaning and context.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Skinner, Quentin—Contributions in political
science. I. Tully, James, 1946-
JC257.S54M43 1989/ 320.5 88-23816
ISBN 0-691-07796-7
ISBN 0-691-02301-8 (pbk.)
Printed in Great Britain
Meaning and Context
Quentin Skinner and
his Critics
EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY
James Tully
Princeton University Press
Princeton, New Jersey

Words are deeds
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Culture and Value

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of contributors xi
PART I INTRODUCTION
Overview 3
1 The pen is a mighty sword: Quentin Skinner’s analysis
of politics 7
James 'Fully
PART II QUENTIN SKINNER ON INTERPRETATION
2 Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas 29
3 Motives, intentions and the interpretation of texts 68
4 ‘Social meaning’ and the explanation of social action 79
5 Some problems in the analysis of political thoughta nd action 97
6 Language and social change 119
PARTIII CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
7 Say it with flowers 135
Martin Hollis
8 How do illocutionary descriptions explain? 147
Keith Graham
9 An historicist critique of ‘revisionist’ methods for studying
the history of ideas 156
Joseph V. hernia
10 Method in intellectual history: 176
Quentin Skinner's Foundations
Kenneth Minogue
11 Quentin Skinner's method and Machiavclli’s Prince 194
Nathan Tarcov
viii Contents
12 More theses on the philosophy of history 204
John Keane
13 The hermeneutics of conflict 218
Charles Taylor
PART IV AFTERWORD
14 A reply to my critics 231
Introduction: For method 231
On describing and explaining beliefs 235
On meaning and speech-acts 259
Quentin Skinner
Notes 289
Bibliography: principal publications of Quentin Skinner 342
Index 345
Acknowledgements
The authors and the editor arc grateful to the following publishers
for permission to reprint the articles presented as chapters in this col­
lection.
1 James Tully, ‘The pen is a mighty sword: Quentin Skinner’s analysis of
politics’, revised, British Journal of Political Science, 13 (winter, 1983),
pp.489-509
2 Quentin Skinner, ‘Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas’,
History and Theory, 8 (1969), pp. 3-53
3 Quentin Skinner, 'Motives, intentions and the interpretation of texts’,
in On Literary Intention, ed. D. Newton de Molina (Edinburgh,
Edinburgh University Press, 1976), pp. 210-21
4 Quentin Skinner, ‘“Social meaning" and the explanation of social
action’, in The Philosophy of History, ed. P. Gardiner (Oxford,
Oxford University Press), pp. 106-27
5 Quentin Skinner, ‘Some problems in the analysis of political thought
and action’, Political Theory, 23 (1974), pp. 277-303
6 Quentin Skinner, ‘Language and social change', revised, in The State
of the Language, ed. L. Michaels and C. Ricks (Berkeley, University
of California Press, 1980), pp. 562-78
7 Martin Hollis, ’Say it with flowers’. Supplementary Proceedings of the
Aristotelian Society, 52 (1978), pp. 43-57
8 Keith Graham, ‘How do illocutionary descriptions explain?’, Ratio, 22
(2) (1981), pp. 124-35
9 Joseph V. Ferma, 'An historical critique of "revisionist" methods
for studying the history of ideas'. History and Theory, 20 (1981), pp.
112-34, copyright © 1981 Wesleyan University
10 Kenneth Mmogue, ‘Method in intellectual history: Quentin Skinner’s
Foundations', Philosophy, 56 (1981), pp. 533-52