Time, History, and Political Thought

by John Robertson (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009289368
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/22/2023
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

John Robertson is Honorary Professor of the History of Political Thought at the University of St Andrews and Professor Emeritus of the History of Political Thought at the University of Cambridge. Previously he taught at Oxford, and he has held visiting appointments in the United States, Italy, France and China. He is a Foreign Member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, Naples. His publications include The Case for the Enlightenment. Scotland and Naples 1680-1760 (2005), The Enlightenment. A Very Short Introduction (2015) and, as editor, A Union for Empire: Political Thought and the Union of 1707 (1995) and Andrew Fletcher: Political Works (1997).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Time, History, and Political Thought John Robertson; 1. Out of Time? Eternity, Christology, and Justinianic Law Caroline Humfress; 2. Historicity and Universality in Roman Law before 1600 Magnus Ryan; 3. 'The Logic of Authority and the Logic of Evidence' George Garnett; 4. Christian Time and the Commonwealth in early modern Political Thought Sarah Mortimer; 5. Politic History Kinch Hoekstra; 6. Hobbes on the Theology and Politics of Time Quentin Skinner; 7. The Recourse to Sacred History before the Enlightenment: Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise John Robertson; 8. Law, Chronology, and Scottish Conjectural History Aaron Garrett; 9. Civilization and Perfectibility: Conflicting Views of the History of Humankind? Silvia Sebastiani; 10. Kant on History, or Theodicy for Mortal Gods Chris Meckstroth; 11. Law's Histories in post-Napoleonic Germany Charlotte Johann; 12. After Historicism: The Politics of Time and History in Twentieth-Century Germany Waseem Yaqoob; 13. The Right to Rebel: History and Universality in the Political Thought of the Algerian Revolution Emma Stone Mackinnon; Bibliography; Index.