Political Philosophy Versus History? Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought

Contents......Page 6
Note on the contributors......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
The challenge of universalism......Page 15
The challenge of realism......Page 18
Conclusion......Page 20
Part I: The challenge of contextualism......Page 22
1 Rescuing political theory from the tyranny of history......Page 24
The Collingwoodian paradigm – the problem......Page 26
The critique of historical reductionism in political theory – the solution......Page 33
Political philosophy as a question; political philosophy as a project......Page 49
Historical contextualism as a form of political philosophy......Page 51
The problem with historical contextualism......Page 55
Some clarification regarding targets......Page 57
Two alternative suggestions......Page 59
Mentalism in focus......Page 61
Revisionism and behaviourism considered......Page 66
Some tentative conclusions......Page 73
3 Contingency and judgement in history of political philosophy: a phenomenological approach......Page 76
The Limits of Revisionism......Page 77
The logic of normative argument......Page 79
Thinking, writing, acting......Page 83
Second thoughts......Page 87
History and theory......Page 90
I......Page 95
II......Page 99
III......Page 103
IV......Page 111
Part II The challenge of realism......Page 114
5 Politics, political theory and its history......Page 116
Political practice and rhetoric......Page 123
HPT and PP......Page 127
HPT and politics......Page 129
HPT and PP revisited......Page 133
PP and politics......Page 135
6 Constraint, freedom, and exemplar: history and theory without teleology......Page 139
The nature of normative political theory......Page 142
History as constraint: explanation and normative political theory......Page 147
History as freedom: genealogy and the implications of contingency......Page 150
History as exemplar: classical practices and contemporary analogues......Page 157
Conclusion: an example of the role of examples......Page 160
7 History and reality: idealist pathologies and ‘Harvard School’ remedies......Page 162
Political bridging: between is and ought......Page 165
Against the psychology of system: hope through narrative......Page 171
Political morality: agency, situation, and practical commitments......Page 176
Avoiding the intellectually worst: realism versus speculative fiction......Page 182
Introduction......Page 188
Raymond Geuss: from modus vivendi to legitimacy I......Page 192
Bernard Williams: from modus vivendi to legitimacy II......Page 196
James Tully: from legitimacy to justice I......Page 206
Agonistic realism: from legitimacy to justice II......Page 212
Relative value and the ranking problem......Page 217
Relative value, as distinct from …......Page 222
Relative value and the double-balance......Page 226
Lesson 1 – fool’s gold......Page 230
Lesson 2 – the limits of theory......Page 231
Lesson 3 – political philosophy versus history as a guide to political philosophy versus the rest......Page 233
Lesson 4 – the uncertainty of progress......Page 235
Index......Page 237