Political Philosophy versus History?: Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought

Jonathan Floyd, Marc Stears

Cambridge University Press, Aug 4, 2011 - Political Science - 240 pages

Is the way in which political philosophy is conducted today too ahistorical? Does such ahistoricism render political philosophy too abstract? Is political philosophy thus incapable of dealing with the realities of political life? This volume brings together some of the world's leading political philosophers to address these crucial questions. The contributors focus especially on political philosophy's pretensions to universality and on its strained relationship with the world of real politics. Some chapters argue that political philosophers should not be cowed by the accusations levied against them from outside of their own field. Others insist that these accusations require a dramatic reshaping of normative political thought. The volume will spark controversy across political philosophy and beyond.

About the author

Jonathan Floyd is a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and Research Fellow in Political Theory at St Hilda's College. He was previously a Fellow of the Centre for Political Ideologies and a Research Scholar at University College, University of Oxford. He has written widely on both the nature of political philosophy and on its relationship with history.

Marc Stears is Fellow in Politics at University College, Oxford, having previously been Fellow in Social and Political Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is the author of Demanding Democracy: American Radicals in Search of a New Politics (2010) and Progressives, Pluralists and the Problems of the State (2002), as well as joint editor of Political Theory: Methods and Approaches (2008). He is well-known for his research on methodology in the history of political thought and for innovative approaches to the study of political ideologies.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Political Philosophy versus History?: Contextualism and Real Politics in Contemporary Political Thought
• Editors: Jonathan Floyd, Marc Stears
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011
• ISBN: 0521146887, 9780521146883
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History; Philosophy / Political; Political Science / History & Theory