Why Do So Many Scholars Try and Fail to Draw Contemporary Insights from the History of Political Thought?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Why Do So Many Scholars Try and Fail to Draw Contemporary Insights from the History of Political Thought?

AU - Blau, Adrian

PY - 2023/6/15

Y1 - 2023/6/15

N2 - Some scholars try to draw contemporary insights from the history of political thought. Why do so many of them fail? One reason is that our “methodological” literature gives little practical guidance about doing research on the history of political thought, including on this issue. One practical lesson offered in this paper is that when drawing contemporary insights from the history of political thought, we should think not only like historians of political thought but also like political theorists, or philosophers, or suchlike. This challenges Quentin Skinner’s view, although fortunately not his practice. A second reason is mentality: too many scholars seem to think that it is easy to use the history of political thought to draw contemporary insights. Fear is a virtue: we should worry about the robustness of our insights. Humility and intellectual flexibility are also virtues, as is the willingness to spend time engaging rigorously and accurately with the contemporary literature or issues. This challenges some of John Dunn’s practices.

AB - Some scholars try to draw contemporary insights from the history of political thought. Why do so many of them fail? One reason is that our “methodological” literature gives little practical guidance about doing research on the history of political thought, including on this issue. One practical lesson offered in this paper is that when drawing contemporary insights from the history of political thought, we should think not only like historians of political thought but also like political theorists, or philosophers, or suchlike. This challenges Quentin Skinner’s view, although fortunately not his practice. A second reason is mentality: too many scholars seem to think that it is easy to use the history of political thought to draw contemporary insights. Fear is a virtue: we should worry about the robustness of our insights. Humility and intellectual flexibility are also virtues, as is the willingness to spend time engaging rigorously and accurately with the contemporary literature or issues. This challenges some of John Dunn’s practices.

KW - contextualism

KW - history of political thought

KW - John Dunn

KW - presentism

KW - Quentin Skinner

M3 - Article

SN - 1825-9618

JO - Scienza & Politica

JF - Scienza & Politica

ER -