Political Thinkers: From Socrates to the Present

283 Pages·2003·11.02 MB·English

by  David Boucher

Political Thinkers
FroITl Socrates to the Present
Edited by
David Boucher and Paul Kelly
OXEORD
LTNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Contents
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Introduction David Boucher and Paul Kelly
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungaty Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore PAR T I The Polis
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Viemam
2 The Sophists Peter Nicholson 23
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries 3 Socrates Fred Rosen 40
Published in the United States 4 Plato C.D.C. Reeve 54
by Oxford University Press Inc .. New York
Aristotle Tony Bums 73
© Oxford University Press 2003
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker) PART II The two kingdoms
First published 2003
Reprinted 2003, 2004, 2005 6 St Augustine Jean Bethke [Ishtain 95
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, 7 Aquinas Joseph Canning 108
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, 8 Marsiglio of Padua Cary J. Nederman 124
orerp arso egxrapprehsisclsy rpigehrntsl iottregda nbiyz alatiwo,n .o rE unnqudierrie tse rcmons caegrrneiendg wreipthr otdhue catipopnr opriate 9 Machiavelli Joseph v. Femia 139
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover PART III The rationalist Enlightenment
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Libraty Cataloguing in Publication Data 10 Hobbes Deborah Baumgold 163
Data available 11 Locke Jeremy Woldron 181
Libraty of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 12 Hume Paul Kelly
Data available
13 Montesquieu Yoshie Kawade 217
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-878194-3
ISBN-10: 0-19-878194-6 14 Rousseau David Boucher 235
10 9 8 7 6 5 15 The Federalist Papers Terence Ball 253
Typeset by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd .. Hong Kong 16 Wollstonecraft Carole Pateman 270
Printed in Great Britain by
17 Tocqueville Cheryl Welch 288
Antony Rowe Ltd
Chippenham, Wilts 18 Bentham Paul Kelly 307
19 J. S, Millon liberty Paul Kelly 324
20 J. S. Mill on the Subjection of Women Jennifer Ring 343
vi Contents
PA RT IV The counter-Enlightenment
Detailed contents
21 Burke David Boucher
22 Hegel Alan Patten
23 The early Marx Lawrence Wilde
24 Marx and Engels Paul Thomas
25 Nietzsche Nathan Widder 1 Introduction
Introduction
The study of political thought
Political thinkers: an overview 9
PAR T V The twentieth century: four approaches
Perennial problems 14
What is a classic text? 16
26 Oakeshott David Boucher 459
27 Habermas Kenneth Baynes 480
28 Rawls Rex Martin 496 PAR T I The Polis
29 Foucault Paul Patton 516
2 The Sophists 23
JNDEX 537 Introduction: the Sophists and their significance 24
Protagoras and the politics of the community: the indispensability of justice 26
Thrasymachus and the politics of the individual: the disadvantage of justice 30
Antiphon and further doubts about justice 33
Conclusion: the Sophists and Plato 36
3 Socrates 40
Who is Socrates? 41
Socratic paradoxes and the elenchus 44
The trial of Socrates 46
Reconciliation and political philosophy 49
Socrates and Athenian democracy 51
4 Plato 54
An overview of the Republic 56
Forms and the good-itself 58
The structure of the kallipolis 61
Specialization 62
The lies of the rulers 63
Private life and private property 65
Invalids, infants, slaves 66
Censorship of the arts 68
Freedom and autonomy 70
Aristotle 73
Aristotle's view of human nature 76
The Nicomachean Ethics 77
The Politics 81
Aristotle and contemporary political theory 88
viii Detailed Contents
Detailed Contents ix
PART II The two kingdoms Foundations: equality and natural law 188
Property, economy, and disagreement 190
Limited government, toleration, and the rule of law 192
6 St Augustine 95 Conclusion: Locke's legacy 196
Introduction: Augustine and political theory 97 12 Hume 198
The self 98
Social life 101 Introduction 200
Experience and knowledge
War and peace 104 201
Facts and values
Conclusion 106 203
Moral judgement
204
7 Aquinas 108 Natural and artificial virtues
205
Introduction 110 Justice and conventions 206
The natural and supernatural orders 112 Property and justice 207
Theory of law 113 Government 209
Theory of government 115 Was Hume a utilitarian? 213
The case of tyranny 119 Hume's enduring legacy 214
Temporal and spiritual power 120
Just war theory 121 13 Montesquieu 217
Conclusion 122 Introduction: Montesquieu as a critic of despotism 219
8 Marsiglio of Padua 124 Early writings 221
The separation of powers 222
Introduction 125 Law and the concept of general spirits 224
The Defender of Peace 126 The theory of the three forms of government 226
Principles of secular theory 129 Politics and history 228
Ecclesiology 133 Political liberty: 'the liberty of the citizen' 230
Later writings on empire and church 134 Conclusion 232
9 Machiavelli 139 14 Rousseau 235
The many faces of Machiavelli 141
Introduction 238
Setting the context 144
Hostility to metaphysics 147 Totalitarian, liberal, or republican? 239
Rousseau's state of nature 240
Empirical method 150
Rousseau's criticisms of Hobbes 240
Political realism 153
Conclusion 157 Natural law and natural rights 244
The problem of freedom 246
Freedom and dependence 249
PART III The rationalist Enlightenment 15 The Federalist Papers 253
10 Hobbes 163 Introduction: context and background 255
Arguments about 'republican' government 257
Introduction 164 Arguments about size and extent 258
Three treatises 167 'Republic' redefined 260
Solipsism and egoism 170 Competing conceptions of representation 260
Contractarianism 172 Virtue versus corruption 264
Agency and authorization 173 Standing army versus citizen militia 265
The non-resistance compact between subjects 174 Missing: a bill of rights 266
De facto authority 176 Conclusion 267
11 locke 181 16 Wollstonecraft 270
Introduction: Locke as a liberal theorist 183
Introduction 271
Locke's use of the social contract idea 184
Nature, sentiment, and reason 273
X Detailed Contents Detailed Contents xi
Men's rights and women's freedom 276 Human essence and its alienation 407
Private virtue and public order 279 The critique of the modern state 411
Lovers, parents, and citizens 281 The communist alternative 414
Wollstonecraft and democracy 283 Conclusion 416
17 TocqueviUe 288 24 Marx and Engels 419
The appeal of Tocqueville 290 Introduction 421
Sustaining civic cultures: American lessons 290 The Manifesto of the Communist Party 422
Creating freedom in history's shadow: French lessons 297 Ideology 423
Democracy's need for stabilizing beliefs 301 The critique of political economy 424
'Use value' and 'exchange value' 426
18 Bentham 307
The 'fetishism of commodities' 427
Psychological hedonism 309 'Forces' and 'relations' of production 428
Obligations and rules 312 History 430
Sovereignty and law 315 Revolutionary politics and the state 432
Representative democracy 318 Engels's contribution to Marxism 433
Bentham and liberalism 321
25 Nietzsche 436
19 J. S. Mill on liberty 324
Introduction: God is dead and we have killed him 438
The philosophy of swine 327 The genealogical approach 441
Utilitarian liberalism 330 Good and bad; good and evil 443
The illiberal liberal 334 The victory of slave morality: bad conscience 445
Conclusion 341 The ascetic ideal and the Nihilism of modern secularism 448
20 J. S. Mill on the Subjection of Women 343 The revaluation of values and the politics of difference: the friend and the enemy 451
Introduction 345
Intellectual and political context 346
The Subjection of Women 348 PART V The twentieth century: four approaches
Mill's significance to contemporary feminists 355
Concluding thoughts 357 26 Oakeshott 459
Introduction 461
Philosophical idealism as the background theory 461
PA RT IV The counter-Enlightenment Interpretations of Oakeshott 463
Theory and practice 466
21 Burke 363 The rationalist in politics 467
Modes of association 470
Interpretations of Burke 365
Politics and law 476
Sovereignty and constitutionalism 372
Conclusion 478
Political obligation 375
The community of states 376 27 Habermas 480
Colonialism 379 Early writings (prior to The Theory of Communicative Action) 482
22 Hegel 383 The Theory of Communicative Action 483
Introduction 386 Between Facts and Norms and later political essays 485
Freedom 387 28 Rawls 496
Spirit and dialectic 391
Introduction 499
From property to state 395 The first principle: equal basic liberties 500
Hegel's significance 401 The second principle: distributive economic justice 501
23 The early Marx 404 The original position 503
Introduction 405 Some problems in A Theory of Justice 506
xii Detailed Contents
Rawls's new theory 507
Overlapping consensus 508
The law of peoples 511 Notes on the Contributors
29 Foucault 516
Introduction: critique of the present 518
History of systems of thought 520
Power and freedom 524
Governmentality 526
Subjectivity and ethics 529 Terence Ball is Professor of Political Science and the Public Ethics Scholar at the Lincoln Center for Applied
Conclusion 531 Ethics at Arizona State University. He has held appointments at the University of Minnesota, the University
of California, and Oxford University. He is the author of Transforming Political Discourse (Oxford Univer
sity Press, 1988). Reappraising Political Theory (Oxford University Press, 1995), and a political theory mystery
novel, Rousseau's Ghost (State University of New York Press, 1998), as well as co-editor of Political Innovation
Index 537 and Conceptual Change (Cambridge University Press, 1989), Conceptual Change and the Constitution (Uni
versity of Kansas, 1988), Thomas Jefferson: Political Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1999), and The
Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
Deborah Baumgold is Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Oregon, where she
teaches political theory. She is the author of Hobbes's Political Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
and other writings on seventeenth-century political thought.
Kenneth Baynes is Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the
author of The Normative Grounds of Social Criticism: Kant, Rawls, and Habermas (State University of New
York Press, 1992), and co-editor of Discourse and Democracy: Essays on Habermas's 'Between Facts and
Norms' (State Cniversity of New York Press, 2002) and After Philosophy: End or Transformation (MIT Press,
1987).
David Boucher is Professorial Fellow in the School of European Studies, Cardiff University, and Adjunct Pro
fessor of International Relations at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. He is also Director of the
Collingwood and British Idealism Centre, Cardiff University. He was formerly Professor of Political Theory
and Government at the University of Wales, Swansea. His publications include Texts in Context (Martinus
Nijhoff, 1985), Social and Political Thought of R. G. Collingwood (Cambridge University Press, 1989), A
Radical Hegelian (with Andrew Vincent; St Martin's Press, 1993), Political Theories of International Relations
(Oxford University Press, 1998), and British Idealism and Political Theory (with Andrew Vincent; Edinburgh
Cniversity Press, 2000). David Boucher has previously edited two books with Paul Kelly, The Social Contract
from Hobbes to Rawls (Routledge, 1995) and Social Justice from Hume to Walzer (Routledge, 1998). He is
currently working on varieties of human rights theory, and politics, poetry, and protest in the writings of
Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to be published by Continuum (2003).
Tony Burns is Reader in Politics at Nottingham Trent University. He is convenor of the Hegel Panels of the
annual conference of the Political Studies Association of Great Britain. He is the author of Natural Law and
Political Ideology in the Philosophy of Hegel (Avebury, 1996), and co-editor of The Hegel and lvfarx Connec
tion (Palgrave, 2000). He is currently working on The Aristotelian NaturalLaw Tradition.
Joseph Canning is Reader in History at University of Wales, Bangor. His major publications include The
Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis (Cambridge University Press, 1987; repr. 1989 and 2002); A History of
Medieval Political Thought, 300--1450 (Routledge, 1996; repr. 1998); and contributions to J. H. Burns (ed.),
The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought, C.350--1450 (Cambridge University Press, 1988); also
(ed. with Otto Gerhard Oexle) Political Thought and the Realities of Power in the Middle AgeslPolitisches
Denken und die Wirklichkeit der ldacht im Mittelalter (G6ttingen, 1998). He is currently writing a book
entitled Ideas of Power in the Late Middle Ages, C.1290--['1420.
Jean Bethke Elsht.in is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the Univer
sity of Chicago. The author of many books, her most recent is Jane Addams and the Dream of American
Democracy (Basic Books, 2002). Her 1995 book Democracy on Trial was a New York Times notable book for
that year. 1996'S Augustine and the Limits of Politics was named one of the top five books on religion for that
year by Christian Century. Other of her books have been named by Choice as top academic books in the year
of their publication. Professor Elshtain was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.
xiv Notes on the Contributors Notes on the Contributors XV
She is co-chair of the PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life in America and serves on many boards. She philosophy, and social and cultural theory. He is author of Deleuze and the Political (Routledge, 2000), and
writes regularly for academic publications and journals of civic opinion. co-editor of Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 2000). His
current research includes comparative work on the philosophies of Deleuze and Derrida and an Australian
Joseph V. Femia is Reader in Political Theory at Liverpool University. He has been a British Academy Visiting Research Council collaborative project funded by the ARC and directed at a naturalistic approach to rights
Professor at the European University Institute in Florence, and a Visiting Fellow at Princeton and Yale and norms. He is currently a co-editor of Theory & Event. He has translated Difference and Repetition by
Universities. He is the author of Gramsci's Political Thought (Oxford University Press, 1981), Marxism and Gilles Deleuze (Columbia University Press, 1995).
Democracy (Oxford University Press, 1993), and The Machiavellian Legacy (Oxford University Press, 1998).
David C.D.C. Reeve is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has pub
He is currently writing books on Machiavelli and varieties of anti-democratic thought.
lished widely in the field of Greek philosophy and ethics and translated a number of classical Greek philo
Yoshie Kawade is associate professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan. A specialist in modern sophical texts. His most recent books include Philosopher Kings (Hackett, 1998), Substantial Knowledge:
French political thought, she is the author of kizoku no toku, shogyo no seisin, which examines the ambiva Aristotle's Metaphysics (Hackett, 2000), and Women in the Academy: Dialogues on Themes from Plato's
lent attitude of Montesquieu toward aristocratic virtue and the spirit of commerce. Her writings include La 'Republic' (Hackett, 2001).
LibertI! civile contre la theorie reformiste de l'etat souverain and Will and Politics: The Theory of Sovereignty in
Bodin and Rousseau. Jennifer Ring is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Women's Studies Program, University of
Nevada, Reno. She has published in the fields of women and politics, gender, and race. Her books include
Paul Kelly is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the London School of Economics, and editor of Political Modem Political Theory and Contemporary Feminism: A Dialectical Approach (State University of New York
Studies. He has written on the history of political ideas and modern political philosophy and his books in Press, 1991) and The Political Consequences of Thinking: Gender and Judaism ill the Work of Hannah Arendt
clude Utilitarianism and Distrib.,tive Justice (Clarendon Press, 1990), and, as editor, The Social Contract from (State University of New York Press, 1997).
Hobbes to Rawls (Routledge, 1994), Impartiality, Neutrality and Justice (Edinburgh University Press, 1998),
Fred Rosen is Professor of the History of Political Thought at University College London. He has written
Social Justice (Routledge, 1998), and jV[,,zticulturalism Reconsidered (Polity Press, 2002).
widely in ancient Greek political thought and particularly on the Socratic dialogues of Plato, was a founder
Rex Martin has held university appointments in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Currently of the Society for Greek Political Thought, and serves on the editorial board of Polis. He was for many years
he is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas and Honorary Professorial Fellow at Cardiff Uni Director of the Bentham Project at University College London, and is joint general editor of The Collected
versity. His most recent books are A System of Rights (Oxford University Press, 1997) and a revised edition, Works of Jeremy Bentham. Among his books are Jeremy Bentham and Representative Democracy (Oxford
with introduction, of R. G. Collingwood's An Essay on Metaphysics (Oxford University Press, 1998). Martin University Press, 1983) and Bentham, Byron alld Greece (Oxford University Press, 1992). He is currently com
continues to work on Rawls's political thought and is currently working on two long-term projects as well: pleting a book entitled Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to }vfill.
the nature and justification of human rights and the problem of providing a moral justification for a de
Paul Thomas is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His publications include
mocratic system of rights.
Karllvlarx and the Anarchists (Routledge, 1985); Alien Politics: J'vlarxist State Theory Retrieved (with Terrell
Cary J. Nederman is Professor of Political Science, University of Arizona. He is the author of Community and Carver; Routledge, 1994); Rational Choice IVlarxism (with David Lloyd; Macmillan, 1995); and Culture and
Consent (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994) and Worlds ofD ifference (Penn State University Press, 2000). He is the the State (Routledge, 1998).
editor of John of Salisbury, Policraticus (Cambridge University Press, 1991), and co-editor of "'Iedieval Politi Jeremy Waldron is Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor at Columbia Law School and Director of
cal Theory (Routledge, 1993), IVfarsiglio of Padua, Defensor }dinor (Cambridge University Press, 1993), Three Columbia's Center for Law and Philosophy. He has published numerous books, including most recently The
Tracts on Empire (Thoemmes Press, 2000), Readings in Medieval Political Philosophy (Hackett, 2000), and Dignity of Legislation (Cambridge l.:niversity Press, 1999), Law and Disagreement (Oxford University Press,
Marsilius of Padua, Defensor Pacis (Columbia University Press, 2000). He is currently completing an edition 1999), and God, Locke and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
of fourteenth-and fifteenth-century European texts on empire (Thoemmes Press, forthcoming); and revis
ing a monograph study of the medieval roots of religious toleration, for Cambridge University Press. Cheryl Welch received her MA and Ph.D. from Columbia University in political theory. She taught at Harvard
University for nine years as an Assistant and Associate Professor, and has also taught at Columbia, Rutgers,
Peter Nicholson studied at the University of Exeter, and lectured at the University of Wales, Swansea, and the and Tufts. Professor Welch has received research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities
University of York, including a range of courses in the history of political thought; he retired as Reader in and the Mellon Foundation, and has been a fellow at the Bunting Institute and at the Harvard Law School.
the Department of Politics in 2001. He has published papers on Protagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, and is the She is currently a Professor at Simmons College, where she chairs the Department of Political Science and
editor of Polis, the journal of the Society for the Study of Greek Political Thought. He is the author of The International Relations. During the academic year 2001-2 she was a fellow in residence at the Carr Center
Political Philosophy of the British Idealists: Selected Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1990), and editor of for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard l.:niversity. Cheryl Welch
an expanded edition ofT. H. Green's Works (Thoemmes Press, 1997). is the author of Liberty and Utility: The French Ideologues and the Transformation of Liberalism
Carole Pateman was formerly a Reader at the University of Sydney and is Professor of Political Science at the (Columbia University Press, 1984), Critical Issues in Social Theory (with Murray Milgate; Vanderbilt
University of California, Los Angeles. She has held numerous visiting fellowships in Australia and Europe University Press, 1989), and De Tocquevil/e (Oxford University Press, 2001), as well as numerous articles
and was President of the International Political Science Association in 1991-4. Her publications include Par on French and British political thought, liberalism, and democracy. Her current work focuses on
ticipation and Democratic Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1970), The Problem of Political Obligation cosmopolitanism and the challenge to traditional ideas of citizenship.
(John Wiley, 1985), The Sexual Contract (Polity Press, 1988), and The Disorder of Women (Polity Press, 1989). Nathan Widder is Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Exeter, having previously taught at the
She is the co-editor of Feminist Interpretatiol1S and Political Theory (Polity Press, 1991). London School of Economics. His research interests span the history of Western political thought, con
Alan Patten is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal. His temporary continental philosophy, and feminist political theory. He is the author of Genealogies of
research interests include contemporary Anglo-American political philosophy and the history of political Difference (University of Illinois Press, 2002), and is currently working on a book on Gilles Deleuze.
thought, especially from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. His book Hegel's Idea of Freedom Lawrence Wilde is Professor of Politics at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of Marx and Con
(Oxford University Press, 1998) was awarded the Macpherson Prize of the Canadian Political Science tradiction (Avebury, 1989), Modern European Socialism (Dartmouth, 1994), and Ethicallvlarxism and its
Association in 2000. He is currently working on a book on language rights. Radical Critics (~lacmillan, 1998). He is the joint editor of Approaches to Ivlarx (with Mark Cowling; Open
Paul Patton is Professor of Philosophy and Head of School at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, University 1989) and Ivlarxism's Ethical Thinkers (Palgrave, 2001). He is currently completing a book on
Australia. Paul Patton has published widely on aspects of twentieth-century French philosophy, political Erich Fromm.
1 Introduction
David Boucher and Paul Kelly
Contents
Introduction
The study of political thought
Philosophical considerations 3
Political thought as history 4
Political thought and the claims of science 5
Political thought and practice 7
Political thinkers: an overview 9
Perennial problems 14
What is a classic text? 16
Introduction
Thinking about politics or political thought, which is an activity almost as old as politics itself,
comprises a huge variety of styles and approaches. Political thinkers have sought to explain in
stitutions and practices, advise rulers, defend values and principles, or criticize the world in
which they found themselves. They have focused narrowly on institutions of government,
law-making, and the exercise of coercive power, or more broadly on the character of a society
or people. At its most general, political thought converges with what we now describe as ethics
and moral philosophy, sociology and anthropology, as well as theology and metaphysics.
Some political thinkers have sought to explain the nature of man as a political animal and the
role of politics in an account of human flourishing and well-being, and thus assert the dignity
of political activity in fully human life. Others have sought to explain why politics, though
necessary, is secondary to more important human goals such as seeking salvation and eternal
life. More recently other thinkers have sought to subsume political activity beneath realms
of human activit v such as 'society' or 'the economy'. This variety or plurality of styles,
approaches, and presuppositions has made political thought an exciting intellectual activity
for students and scholars alike, as well as making general surveys of the character of political
thought a matter of deep and persistent conflict among them. As approaches to theorizing
about politics differ, so do accounts of how and why we should continue to study political
thought. It is therefore incumbent upon us, in presenting a new overview of some of the main
Western political thinkers from ancient Greece to the present, to say something, by way of
2 David Boucher ond Paul Kelly Chapter 1: Introductian 3
introduction, both about the activity and point of political thinking and about those thinkers a text, although no doubt such use contributed to the canon, but in a quite different context.
we have included in this book. That context was the emergence of the academic discipline of politics in the United States and
This volume presents a canon of major political thinkers who in various ways have shaped Great Britain, and in response to the demand for textbooks to teach a broadening curriculum
the intellectual architecture of our modem conceptions of the scope of politics. Yet the very
meant to educate citizens and prepare them for public service.l There are a variety of factors
idea of a canon, which we have received and inevitably transformed in constructing this book,
that came to shape the character of the discipline of politics, and the study of political philoso
is itself deeply contested. What makes one thinker 'canonical' and another not? Clearly in con
phy in particular. It is indeed a hybrid discipline accommodating the demands of philosophy,
structing this volume we have had to be selective. But what are our criteria of selection? Does
history, science, and practical political considerations. The tradition of political theory, com
the canon of Western political thought embody a single progressive narrative that explains the posed of texts, is what John Gunnell calls the 'regulative paradigm in the study of politics', and
emergence of'naturallaw' or the triumph of some variety of liberal constitutional democracy it is largely the creation of historians of political thought themselves.2
as the ideal form of government? Or could we have provided a completely different canon of
thinkers which would represent a very different account of the origin and nature of our con
temporary conception of politics? All of these questions relate to the 'how' question facing the
Philosophical considerations
study of political thought. In this introductory chapter we will address some of these ques
tions; in particular we will look at the emergence of the idea of a 'canon' of political thought.
Discussions of political philosophy first began to emerge in histories of philosophy and
We will also address some of the 'why' questions that inevitably attach to the study of political
general literature. Literature then had a much broader meaning encompassing most forms of
thinkers from the past. Given the development of ever more theoretically sophisticated meth
knowledge imparted through books. Multiple-volume studies generally included sections on
ods for the study of government and bureaucracy, why do we need to study what dead, white,
political literature, as for example, in the general surveys of Henry Hallum (1838), and F. D.
and almost exclusively male thinkers had to say about politics in the past? \Aiby does a politics
Maurice (1840S). The honour of producing the first history of political thought, a foretaste of
major in the United States, or an advanced British or Canadian undergraduate student, need which he supplied in The Temporal Bel1efits of Christianity (1849), is often attributed to Robert
to know about Plato, 5t Augustine, Thomas Hobbes, or Karl Marx if he or she is interested in Blakey. His History of Political Literature from the Earliest Times (1855) is not obviously a
the study of politics itself and not merely the history of philosophy? In presenting an account forerunner of the genre because it lacks recognizable criteria of selection and principles of
of the emergence and character of political thought as an object of inquiry, we hope to value. He is concerned to display the vast array of political discussion evident at all levels
provide an answer to this 'why' question as well as provide an interesting overview of the of discourse, and therefore included political ballads, plays, satires, popular songs, and
considerations underlying how one should study the canon of political thinkers.
poetry, as well as the more standard writings that have subsequently come to constitute the
This chapter begins with an account of the origins of the study of political thought as a dis canon.
tinct activity. We start with the emergence of political thought in order to show how the sub
As the discipline began to take form at the end of the nineteenth century, philosophical
ject emerged in British and American universities to serve a variety of purposes, many of idealism was the predominant fashion in philosophy with its emphasis upon the coherence
which are still of central concern to students and scholars of political thought. This variety ex theory of truth, according to which the truth of a statement did not rely on its correspondence
plains the difficulty and undesirability of imposing a single common narrative structure and with an external reality independent of mind, but instead upon its place in a world of ideas
set of concerns on Western political thought, but it also undermines the point of constructing whose consistency and coherence were the criteria of the truth of the statement. Studying
a single authoritative methodology for the study of political thought. Instead we offer four the history of political thought, on this view, was largely seen as a prelude to formulating
sets of considerations which shape approaches to the study of political thought and which one's own philosophy. It was not denied that the history of political philosophy had certain
contribute answers to why we should study it. Building on these pluralist considerations we merits in its own right, but it was maintained that the only proper attitude to adopt in
provide an outline of the book and an account of our criteria of inclusion. The chapter con studying the great philosophers of the past was to use them to formulate one's own philo
cludes with a discussion of the problem of perennial questions and the attempt to explain and sophical theories. This was an attitude that many British idealists displayed in their consider
defend what it is that makes a book a 'classic' text. In this way we provide students with a com ations of political philosophers. 1. H. Green in his Lectures 011 the Pril1ciples of Political
panion and guide to the most important political thinkers of the Western tradition, but also Obligatiol1 (1919) and Bernard Bosanquet in The Philosophical Theory of the State (1899) both
with an advanced introduction into some of the issues that surround the activity of studying examined tlte political theories of other philosophers before going on to develop their own
political thought. philosophical positions.' Michael Oakeshott, a great believer in the autonomy of history,
maintained that the philosopher in studying past political philosophy should do so with a
view to bringing about a 'genuine renaissance'." R. G. Collingwood attempted to bring about
The study of political thought
such a renaissance when his reading of Hobbes stimulated him 'to bring Leviathal1 up to date'.s
Viewing the history of political thought as a stimulus to philosophy was by no means confined
The traditional canon of texts which comprise the subject matter for the study of political to idealists. Two of the most distinguished and recent exponents were Leo Strauss and Eric
thought arose not in the use of one philosopher by another in the ideological exploitation of Voegelin.6