Michael Freeden
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294146
- eISBN:
- 9780191599323
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829414X.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Explores further the consequences of conceptual contestability and determinacy in conjunction with questions of ideological meaning. The eight sections of the chapter are: (a) The inevitability of ...
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Explores further the consequences of conceptual contestability and determinacy in conjunction with questions of ideological meaning. The eight sections of the chapter are: (a) The inevitability of [the contribution of] history [to the meaning of ideology]; (b) Contextual history and intentionality; (c) Ideology and hermeneutics; (d) The contribution of Begriffsgeschichte [the school of conceptual history]; (e) Competing viewpoints and the path to integration; (f) Structure and morphology; (g) Meeting some objections; and (h) Ideologies as vehicles of political theory.Less
Explores further the consequences of conceptual contestability and determinacy in conjunction with questions of ideological meaning. The eight sections of the chapter are: (a) The inevitability of [the contribution of] history [to the meaning of ideology]; (b) Contextual history and intentionality; (c) Ideology and hermeneutics; (d) The contribution of Begriffsgeschichte [the school of conceptual history]; (e) Competing viewpoints and the path to integration; (f) Structure and morphology; (g) Meeting some objections; and (h) Ideologies as vehicles of political theory.
Elizabeth Frazer
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198295648
- eISBN:
- 9780191599316
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198295642.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Contrasting approaches to the political philosophical technique of ‘conceptual analysis’ are discussed. The concept community as it is constructed and deployed in recent social and political theory ...
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Contrasting approaches to the political philosophical technique of ‘conceptual analysis’ are discussed. The concept community as it is constructed and deployed in recent social and political theory is analysed by way of examination of the examples of ‘community’ therein, by the contrasts explicitly or implicitly drawn, and by using an interpretive method and representing in diagrammatic form the elements of and the structure of the concept. The intention here is not to provide a definition but rather to illustrate the concept's indefinition; not to legislate for the concept, but to show why it is contested.Less
Contrasting approaches to the political philosophical technique of ‘conceptual analysis’ are discussed. The concept community as it is constructed and deployed in recent social and political theory is analysed by way of examination of the examples of ‘community’ therein, by the contrasts explicitly or implicitly drawn, and by using an interpretive method and representing in diagrammatic form the elements of and the structure of the concept. The intention here is not to provide a definition but rather to illustrate the concept's indefinition; not to legislate for the concept, but to show why it is contested.
Michael Freeden
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294146
- eISBN:
- 9780191599323
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829414X.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This is the first of three chapters on theorizing about ideological morphology. It looks at the challenges awaiting the student of ideology, what can be gleaned from the most salient theories and ...
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This is the first of three chapters on theorizing about ideological morphology. It looks at the challenges awaiting the student of ideology, what can be gleaned from the most salient theories and views in circulation, and where the state of the art raises questions and leaves gaps to be filled. The material presented demonstrates that there are manifold ways of answering the question ‘what is an ideology?’ There are eight sections: (a) The Conceptual histories of ideology; (b) In search of a single concept; (c) Analytical misconceptions; (d) Rival epistemologies; (e) Philosophy [political philosophy] and ideology: the unholy alliance; (f) Unconscious and rhetorical components of ideology; (g) Ideology and the limits on logic; and (h) The ubiquity and specificity of ideology.Less
This is the first of three chapters on theorizing about ideological morphology. It looks at the challenges awaiting the student of ideology, what can be gleaned from the most salient theories and views in circulation, and where the state of the art raises questions and leaves gaps to be filled. The material presented demonstrates that there are manifold ways of answering the question ‘what is an ideology?’ There are eight sections: (a) The Conceptual histories of ideology; (b) In search of a single concept; (c) Analytical misconceptions; (d) Rival epistemologies; (e) Philosophy [political philosophy] and ideology: the unholy alliance; (f) Unconscious and rhetorical components of ideology; (g) Ideology and the limits on logic; and (h) The ubiquity and specificity of ideology.
Max. M Edling
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195148701
- eISBN:
- 9780199835096
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195148703.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
It would be a fundamental mistake to assume a priori a complete correspondence between the historical sociology of state formation and the conceptual history of the “state,” or, in more general ...
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It would be a fundamental mistake to assume a priori a complete correspondence between the historical sociology of state formation and the conceptual history of the “state,” or, in more general terms, between institutional and intellectual development, and between political reality and political rhetoric. Equally, it would be a mistake to assume that there is no relation whatsoever, and it would have been remarkable if the great expansion of the fiscal and military capacity of central government in Britain in the early modern period had gone unnoticed by contemporaries, so as to leave no mark on historical, political, and social reflection. Shows that the European process of state formation had indeed influenced political commentary in giving rise to arguments analyzing and criticizing the growth of the state, and that these arguments found their way across the Atlantic from Britain to the American colonies in the form of “Country” thought, which gave rise to a complete vocabulary with which to respond to the growth of the British fiscal‐military state in the Anglo‐American world of political discourse. In fact, Antifederalism can be described as an expression of Country thought, although it cannot at the same time be claimed that Federalism was a repetition of the contrasting central Court defense of state expansion.Less
It would be a fundamental mistake to assume a priori a complete correspondence between the historical sociology of state formation and the conceptual history of the “state,” or, in more general terms, between institutional and intellectual development, and between political reality and political rhetoric. Equally, it would be a mistake to assume that there is no relation whatsoever, and it would have been remarkable if the great expansion of the fiscal and military capacity of central government in Britain in the early modern period had gone unnoticed by contemporaries, so as to leave no mark on historical, political, and social reflection. Shows that the European process of state formation had indeed influenced political commentary in giving rise to arguments analyzing and criticizing the growth of the state, and that these arguments found their way across the Atlantic from Britain to the American colonies in the form of “Country” thought, which gave rise to a complete vocabulary with which to respond to the growth of the British fiscal‐military state in the Anglo‐American world of political discourse. In fact, Antifederalism can be described as an expression of Country thought, although it cannot at the same time be claimed that Federalism was a repetition of the contrasting central Court defense of state expansion.
Robert Wokler and Christopher Brooke
Bryan Garsten (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691147888
- eISBN:
- 9781400842407
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691147888.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter's overriding objective is to explain how both the invention of our modern understanding of the social sciences, on the one hand, and the post-Enlightenment establishment of the modern ...
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This chapter's overriding objective is to explain how both the invention of our modern understanding of the social sciences, on the one hand, and the post-Enlightenment establishment of the modern nation-state, on the other, encapsulated doctrines which severed modernity from the Enlightenment philosophy which is presumed to have inspired it. It offers illustrations not so much of the unity of political theory and practice in the modern world as of their disengagement. In providing here some brief remarks on how post-Enlightenment justifications of modernity came to part company from their Enlightenment prefigurations, it hopes to sketch an account of certain links between principles and institutions which bears some relation to both Enlightenment and Hegelian conceptual history.Less
This chapter's overriding objective is to explain how both the invention of our modern understanding of the social sciences, on the one hand, and the post-Enlightenment establishment of the modern nation-state, on the other, encapsulated doctrines which severed modernity from the Enlightenment philosophy which is presumed to have inspired it. It offers illustrations not so much of the unity of political theory and practice in the modern world as of their disengagement. In providing here some brief remarks on how post-Enlightenment justifications of modernity came to part company from their Enlightenment prefigurations, it hopes to sketch an account of certain links between principles and institutions which bears some relation to both Enlightenment and Hegelian conceptual history.
Jan-Werner Müller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199769230
- eISBN:
- 9780199388875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769230.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, European Modern History
The chapter briefly tells the story of how conceptual history emerged in postwar Germany as well as recent attempts to “export” conceptual history to Europe more broadly and even globally. The ...
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The chapter briefly tells the story of how conceptual history emerged in postwar Germany as well as recent attempts to “export” conceptual history to Europe more broadly and even globally. The chapter subsequently addresses the political concerns that have shadowed conceptual history, in particular the worries that it constitutes a form of antimodernism and that it is bound up with the thought of Carl Schmitt. It is then argued that conceptual history’s main promise has been to mediate “social history and the history of consciousness”—without it ever becoming fully clear how that mediation can be carried out coherently, or whether assuming a split between the two is plausible. Conceptual history’s most stimulating contribution remains the imperative to study conceptual transformations in conjunction with changing experiences of time. The chapter concludes with three suggestions for further work: constructing a critical conceptual history of the present; a history of translations and appropriations; and conceptual history as a means to theorize processes of historical change—in particular the changing nature of experience itself.Less
The chapter briefly tells the story of how conceptual history emerged in postwar Germany as well as recent attempts to “export” conceptual history to Europe more broadly and even globally. The chapter subsequently addresses the political concerns that have shadowed conceptual history, in particular the worries that it constitutes a form of antimodernism and that it is bound up with the thought of Carl Schmitt. It is then argued that conceptual history’s main promise has been to mediate “social history and the history of consciousness”—without it ever becoming fully clear how that mediation can be carried out coherently, or whether assuming a split between the two is plausible. Conceptual history’s most stimulating contribution remains the imperative to study conceptual transformations in conjunction with changing experiences of time. The chapter concludes with three suggestions for further work: constructing a critical conceptual history of the present; a history of translations and appropriations; and conceptual history as a means to theorize processes of historical change—in particular the changing nature of experience itself.
Patrick McDonagh, C. F. Goodey, and Tim Stainton (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526125316
- eISBN:
- 9781526136213
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526125316.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This collection explores how concepts of intellectual or learning disability evolved from a range of influences, gradually developing from earlier and decidedly distinct concepts, including ‘idiocy’ ...
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This collection explores how concepts of intellectual or learning disability evolved from a range of influences, gradually developing from earlier and decidedly distinct concepts, including ‘idiocy’ and ‘folly’, which were themselves generated by very specific social and intellectual environments. With essays extending across legal, educational, literary, religious, philosophical, and psychiatric histories, this collection maintains a rigorous distinction between historical and contemporary concepts in demonstrating how intellectual disability and related notions were products of the prevailing social, cultural, and intellectual environments in which they took form, and themselves performed important functions within these environments. Focusing on British and European material from the middle ages to the late nineteenth century, this collection asks ‘How and why did these concepts form?’ ‘How did they connect with one another?’ and ‘What historical circumstances contributed to building these connections?’ While the emphasis is on conceptual history or a history of ideas, these essays also address the consequences of these defining forces for the people who found themselves enclosed by the shifting definitional field.Less
This collection explores how concepts of intellectual or learning disability evolved from a range of influences, gradually developing from earlier and decidedly distinct concepts, including ‘idiocy’ and ‘folly’, which were themselves generated by very specific social and intellectual environments. With essays extending across legal, educational, literary, religious, philosophical, and psychiatric histories, this collection maintains a rigorous distinction between historical and contemporary concepts in demonstrating how intellectual disability and related notions were products of the prevailing social, cultural, and intellectual environments in which they took form, and themselves performed important functions within these environments. Focusing on British and European material from the middle ages to the late nineteenth century, this collection asks ‘How and why did these concepts form?’ ‘How did they connect with one another?’ and ‘What historical circumstances contributed to building these connections?’ While the emphasis is on conceptual history or a history of ideas, these essays also address the consequences of these defining forces for the people who found themselves enclosed by the shifting definitional field.
Patrick McDonagh, C. F. Goodey, and Tim Stainton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526125316
- eISBN:
- 9781526136213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526125316.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Intellectual disability is an unstable concept, and its fundamental instability is magnified when we track its history and relation to other concepts. This introductory chapter explores some of the ...
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Intellectual disability is an unstable concept, and its fundamental instability is magnified when we track its history and relation to other concepts. This introductory chapter explores some of the challenges of investigating the forces shaping the concept of intellectual disability in Europe and Britain across the centuries: not only those generated by shifting language and terminology, but also the demands imposed by the interdisciplinary nature of this project, which takes us through histories of literature, religion, law, education, philosophy, psychology and medicine, in addition to engaging with cultural and social history. Further, the fundamental slipperiness of the idea of intellectual disability raises the question of whether it could even be said to exist in forms similar to that which it assumes today. This introduction also includes a review of literature exploring the history of intellectual disability, and an overview of the chapters to follow.Less
Intellectual disability is an unstable concept, and its fundamental instability is magnified when we track its history and relation to other concepts. This introductory chapter explores some of the challenges of investigating the forces shaping the concept of intellectual disability in Europe and Britain across the centuries: not only those generated by shifting language and terminology, but also the demands imposed by the interdisciplinary nature of this project, which takes us through histories of literature, religion, law, education, philosophy, psychology and medicine, in addition to engaging with cultural and social history. Further, the fundamental slipperiness of the idea of intellectual disability raises the question of whether it could even be said to exist in forms similar to that which it assumes today. This introduction also includes a review of literature exploring the history of intellectual disability, and an overview of the chapters to follow.
María Pía Lara
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162807
- eISBN:
- 9780231535045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162807.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter focuses on conceptual history and on innovation in political theory. The first section analyzes how, in their genealogical accounts, Hannah Arendt and Reinhart Koselleck connected ...
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This chapter focuses on conceptual history and on innovation in political theory. The first section analyzes how, in their genealogical accounts, Hannah Arendt and Reinhart Koselleck connected concepts such as democracy, the state, emancipation, and the notion of critique to the web of a disclosive process of semantic transformations. From the author's particular vantage point as a philosopher (not a historian), her aim is not to engage in the production of a conceptual history, but, rather, to show how conceptual history as a method was used by Arendt and Koselleck to explain the way specific notions of political agency have undergone a change or a transformation. The second part of the chapter shows how Koselleck formulated his theory of conceptual history as a way of explaining his two main categories: the “space of experience” and the “horizon of expectations.” These two realms allow us to situate actors over and against their goals and actions.Less
This chapter focuses on conceptual history and on innovation in political theory. The first section analyzes how, in their genealogical accounts, Hannah Arendt and Reinhart Koselleck connected concepts such as democracy, the state, emancipation, and the notion of critique to the web of a disclosive process of semantic transformations. From the author's particular vantage point as a philosopher (not a historian), her aim is not to engage in the production of a conceptual history, but, rather, to show how conceptual history as a method was used by Arendt and Koselleck to explain the way specific notions of political agency have undergone a change or a transformation. The second part of the chapter shows how Koselleck formulated his theory of conceptual history as a way of explaining his two main categories: the “space of experience” and the “horizon of expectations.” These two realms allow us to situate actors over and against their goals and actions.
María Pía Lara
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162807
- eISBN:
- 9780231535045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162807.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This introductory chapter considers recent debates concerning the meaning of secularization. It cites the need to first trace the genealogy of the term and identify the relevant political actors ...
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This introductory chapter considers recent debates concerning the meaning of secularization. It cites the need to first trace the genealogy of the term and identify the relevant political actors involved in the development of secularism, when they began to use the term as they did, and why their expectations were related to their experiences through new and different ways of understanding the concept. It then examines the meaning of disclosure as well as the dialectics between immanence and transcendence in relation to politics. It concludes that it was through conceptual history and in discovering how politics belonged to the realm of immanence that it truly gained its autonomy from theology. Modern politics established its grounds by relating societies to their experiences and hopes of its own institutionalization.Less
This introductory chapter considers recent debates concerning the meaning of secularization. It cites the need to first trace the genealogy of the term and identify the relevant political actors involved in the development of secularism, when they began to use the term as they did, and why their expectations were related to their experiences through new and different ways of understanding the concept. It then examines the meaning of disclosure as well as the dialectics between immanence and transcendence in relation to politics. It concludes that it was through conceptual history and in discovering how politics belonged to the realm of immanence that it truly gained its autonomy from theology. Modern politics established its grounds by relating societies to their experiences and hopes of its own institutionalization.
Bo Stråth
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600670
- eISBN:
- 9780191738203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600670.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
There is not one liberalism but several, each of which has contributed to the modernity of Europe. The collection of arguments that we call liberalism reflects the deep historical diversity of ...
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There is not one liberalism but several, each of which has contributed to the modernity of Europe. The collection of arguments that we call liberalism reflects the deep historical diversity of Europe, a diversity that since the nineteenth century has had the demarcation between nation states as a point of departure. To argue that each specific national culture has had its own understanding and experience of liberalism is to underestimate the complexity, however, because in each national setting there have been various more or less contested versions. This chapter argues that there is a need to historicize and contextualize liberalism through the methodology of conceptual history, to particularize (‘provincialize’) what is claimed to be universal. The chapter focuses on the liberal conceptualization of the economic, and on the connection between market language and the social issue.Less
There is not one liberalism but several, each of which has contributed to the modernity of Europe. The collection of arguments that we call liberalism reflects the deep historical diversity of Europe, a diversity that since the nineteenth century has had the demarcation between nation states as a point of departure. To argue that each specific national culture has had its own understanding and experience of liberalism is to underestimate the complexity, however, because in each national setting there have been various more or less contested versions. This chapter argues that there is a need to historicize and contextualize liberalism through the methodology of conceptual history, to particularize (‘provincialize’) what is claimed to be universal. The chapter focuses on the liberal conceptualization of the economic, and on the connection between market language and the social issue.
Christopher Hobson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748692811
- eISBN:
- 9781474416184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748692811.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter explores existing scholarship on democracy in international relations, focusing primarily on the democratic peace research programme. The remainder of the chapter provides the ...
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This chapter explores existing scholarship on democracy in international relations, focusing primarily on the democratic peace research programme. The remainder of the chapter provides the theoretical and conceptual framework for the book. It identifies how conceptions of democracy have developed in relation to principles of sovereignty and legitimacy in international society. A conceptual history methodology is proposed, which is outlined by drawing on the work of Quentin Skinner and Reinhart Koselleck. The final part of the chapter uses Thucydides to draw out some key themes of the book.Less
This chapter explores existing scholarship on democracy in international relations, focusing primarily on the democratic peace research programme. The remainder of the chapter provides the theoretical and conceptual framework for the book. It identifies how conceptions of democracy have developed in relation to principles of sovereignty and legitimacy in international society. A conceptual history methodology is proposed, which is outlined by drawing on the work of Quentin Skinner and Reinhart Koselleck. The final part of the chapter uses Thucydides to draw out some key themes of the book.
Stefanos Geroulanos and Todd Meyers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226556451
- eISBN:
- 9780226556628
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226556628.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
The injuries suffered by soldiers during WWI were as varied as they were brutal. How could the human body suffer and often absorb such disparate traumas? Why might the same wound lead one soldier to ...
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The injuries suffered by soldiers during WWI were as varied as they were brutal. How could the human body suffer and often absorb such disparate traumas? Why might the same wound lead one soldier to die but allow another to recover? In The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe, Stefanos Geroulanos and Todd Meyers uncover a fascinating story of how medical scientists came to conceptualize the body as an integrated yet brittle whole. Responding to the harrowing experience of the Great War, the medical community sought conceptual frameworks to understand bodily shock, brain injury, and the wildly divergence between patients. Geroulanos and Meyers carefully trace how this emerging constellation of concepts became essential for thinking about integration, individuality, fragility, and collapse far beyond medicine: in fields as diverse as anthropology, political economy, psychoanalysis, and cybernetics. Moving effortlessly between the history of medicine and intellectual history, The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe is an intriguing look into the conceptual underpinnings of the world the Great War ushered in.Less
The injuries suffered by soldiers during WWI were as varied as they were brutal. How could the human body suffer and often absorb such disparate traumas? Why might the same wound lead one soldier to die but allow another to recover? In The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe, Stefanos Geroulanos and Todd Meyers uncover a fascinating story of how medical scientists came to conceptualize the body as an integrated yet brittle whole. Responding to the harrowing experience of the Great War, the medical community sought conceptual frameworks to understand bodily shock, brain injury, and the wildly divergence between patients. Geroulanos and Meyers carefully trace how this emerging constellation of concepts became essential for thinking about integration, individuality, fragility, and collapse far beyond medicine: in fields as diverse as anthropology, political economy, psychoanalysis, and cybernetics. Moving effortlessly between the history of medicine and intellectual history, The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe is an intriguing look into the conceptual underpinnings of the world the Great War ushered in.
Stuart Elden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226202563
- eISBN:
- 9780226041285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226041285.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This introductory chapter first discusses why territory matters today, and then provides some conceptual clarity. It suggests that work on a related but distinct term of territoriality, in either the ...
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This introductory chapter first discusses why territory matters today, and then provides some conceptual clarity. It suggests that work on a related but distinct term of territoriality, in either the biological or the social uses of this term, are not particularly profitable ways to approach the historically more specific category of ‘territory’. Instead, ideas of ‘land’ and ‘terrain’ are examined, suggesting that these political-economic and political-strategic relations are essential to understanding ‘territory’, yet ultimately insufficient. Territory needs to be understood in terms of its relation to space, a calculative category that is dependent on the existence of a range of techniques and legal practices. Territory can be thought as a political technology. The chapter also discusses the relation between the word, concept and practice of territory, and outlines the methodological concerns of the inquiry in relation to genealogy, conceptual history and the history of political thought.Less
This introductory chapter first discusses why territory matters today, and then provides some conceptual clarity. It suggests that work on a related but distinct term of territoriality, in either the biological or the social uses of this term, are not particularly profitable ways to approach the historically more specific category of ‘territory’. Instead, ideas of ‘land’ and ‘terrain’ are examined, suggesting that these political-economic and political-strategic relations are essential to understanding ‘territory’, yet ultimately insufficient. Territory needs to be understood in terms of its relation to space, a calculative category that is dependent on the existence of a range of techniques and legal practices. Territory can be thought as a political technology. The chapter also discusses the relation between the word, concept and practice of territory, and outlines the methodological concerns of the inquiry in relation to genealogy, conceptual history and the history of political thought.
Christopher Hobson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748692811
- eISBN:
- 9781474416184
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748692811.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Little over 200 years ago, a quarter of a century of warfare with an ‘outlaw state’ brought the great powers of Europe to their knees. That state was the revolutionary democracy of France. In the ...
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Little over 200 years ago, a quarter of a century of warfare with an ‘outlaw state’ brought the great powers of Europe to their knees. That state was the revolutionary democracy of France. In the intervening period, there has been a remarkable transformation in the way democracy is understood and valued – today, it is the non-democratic states that are seen as rogue regimes. This book looks at the historical contrast between the strongly negative perceptions of democracy in the 18th century and the very high degree of acceptance and legitimacy in contemporary international politics. It considers democracy’s remarkable rise from obscurity to centre stage in contemporary international relations, and uses history as a foundation for developing a normative defence of democracy.Less
Little over 200 years ago, a quarter of a century of warfare with an ‘outlaw state’ brought the great powers of Europe to their knees. That state was the revolutionary democracy of France. In the intervening period, there has been a remarkable transformation in the way democracy is understood and valued – today, it is the non-democratic states that are seen as rogue regimes. This book looks at the historical contrast between the strongly negative perceptions of democracy in the 18th century and the very high degree of acceptance and legitimacy in contemporary international politics. It considers democracy’s remarkable rise from obscurity to centre stage in contemporary international relations, and uses history as a foundation for developing a normative defence of democracy.
Daniel Béland and Klaus Petersen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447306443
- eISBN:
- 9781447311607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447306443.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This introduction chapter develops the overall framework for the following chapters. First, it demonstrates that there is a need to take a closer look at the development of key concepts in social ...
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This introduction chapter develops the overall framework for the following chapters. First, it demonstrates that there is a need to take a closer look at the development of key concepts in social policy language such as ‘welfare state’, ‘social security’, ‘welfare society’. The terms, metaphors, and concepts we use when studying social policy are far from innocent and are closely tied to political struggles and transnational processes. Therefore, from a comparative and international perspective, studying terminology and concept formation is an important part of both political and policy analysis. Second, the chapter discusses different approaches to the study of social policy concepts and language, including conceptual history, discourse analysis, and the role of ideas literature. Third, this introductory chapter outlines the structure and the content of the volume as a whole.Less
This introduction chapter develops the overall framework for the following chapters. First, it demonstrates that there is a need to take a closer look at the development of key concepts in social policy language such as ‘welfare state’, ‘social security’, ‘welfare society’. The terms, metaphors, and concepts we use when studying social policy are far from innocent and are closely tied to political struggles and transnational processes. Therefore, from a comparative and international perspective, studying terminology and concept formation is an important part of both political and policy analysis. Second, the chapter discusses different approaches to the study of social policy concepts and language, including conceptual history, discourse analysis, and the role of ideas literature. Third, this introductory chapter outlines the structure and the content of the volume as a whole.
María Pía Lara
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231162807
- eISBN:
- 9780231535045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231162807.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter examines Hannah Arendt's vision of the task of politics and her views on concept building. It begins by showing that her analysis of the loss of the Western concept of authority in ...
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This chapter examines Hannah Arendt's vision of the task of politics and her views on concept building. It begins by showing that her analysis of the loss of the Western concept of authority in modernity and her ideas about creating an autonomous space for politics provide the internal connection for all her essays on secularization. Second, it focuses on how, in On Revolution, she rescues the Roman concept of authority as foundational and connects it to her model of the American revolution. Third, it shows how she uses the method of political disclosure by taking religious images and mythic figures to open up the space for new kinds of political interactions among political agents. The chapter also contrasts her theory of myths and mythmaking with Blumenberg's. In so doing it presents her views on religion's role in conceptual history by describing her method of thematizing the emergence, transformation, and innovation of concepts. It discusses her ideas about action, power, and freedom as seen through the immanent practices between political actors. It is argued that representation of Jesus' actions take on new semantic meanings because of the sense of political agency that has been ascribed to them. Arendt's model is the first step toward a full disclosure of new categories, which can provide a different perspective on what is at stake when we engage with ideas “thinking without a banister”.Less
This chapter examines Hannah Arendt's vision of the task of politics and her views on concept building. It begins by showing that her analysis of the loss of the Western concept of authority in modernity and her ideas about creating an autonomous space for politics provide the internal connection for all her essays on secularization. Second, it focuses on how, in On Revolution, she rescues the Roman concept of authority as foundational and connects it to her model of the American revolution. Third, it shows how she uses the method of political disclosure by taking religious images and mythic figures to open up the space for new kinds of political interactions among political agents. The chapter also contrasts her theory of myths and mythmaking with Blumenberg's. In so doing it presents her views on religion's role in conceptual history by describing her method of thematizing the emergence, transformation, and innovation of concepts. It discusses her ideas about action, power, and freedom as seen through the immanent practices between political actors. It is argued that representation of Jesus' actions take on new semantic meanings because of the sense of political agency that has been ascribed to them. Arendt's model is the first step toward a full disclosure of new categories, which can provide a different perspective on what is at stake when we engage with ideas “thinking without a banister”.
Jenny Andersson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198814337
- eISBN:
- 9780191851919
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198814337.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Chapter 2 argues that historians need to reengage with the future. It sets out an argument for a transnational history of the future, which traces the circulation of forms of predictive knowledge and ...
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Chapter 2 argues that historians need to reengage with the future. It sets out an argument for a transnational history of the future, which traces the circulation of forms of predictive knowledge and expertise as part of a powered claim on world futures and as part of a struggle over the “long term.” The chapter revisits Reinhart Koselleck’s futures past argument, and challenges it universalistic dimensions while engaging with a recent historiography of world temporalities, modernization, and planning. It also proposes that a situated and contextualized intellectual history of the future is an alternative to the “annalistics of the long term” proposed recently, and that such a history needs to be thought of as a situated intellectual history of circulation of forms of knowledge and expertise deeply involved with world making.Less
Chapter 2 argues that historians need to reengage with the future. It sets out an argument for a transnational history of the future, which traces the circulation of forms of predictive knowledge and expertise as part of a powered claim on world futures and as part of a struggle over the “long term.” The chapter revisits Reinhart Koselleck’s futures past argument, and challenges it universalistic dimensions while engaging with a recent historiography of world temporalities, modernization, and planning. It also proposes that a situated and contextualized intellectual history of the future is an alternative to the “annalistics of the long term” proposed recently, and that such a history needs to be thought of as a situated intellectual history of circulation of forms of knowledge and expertise deeply involved with world making.
Margrit Pernau and Helge Jordheim
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198745532
- eISBN:
- 9780191807596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198745532.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The Introduction links the topic of the book—the conceptual history of civility and civilization—back to contemporary debates on norms of civilized behaviour and their impact on civil society. It ...
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The Introduction links the topic of the book—the conceptual history of civility and civilization—back to contemporary debates on norms of civilized behaviour and their impact on civil society. It places the entangled debates on civilization in the age of high imperialism in the context of the creation of a global order, premised on the idea of a hierarchy of societies according to their place in the stages of development, and traces its changes—an increasing importance of the body and of race in the end of the nineteenth century and the discrediting of the European model after the First World War. The Introduction lays out how the concepts of civility and civilization are centrally premised on the creation and management of emotions: it is by transforming their emotions that individuals could take part in the struggle leading to a higher global station for their society.Less
The Introduction links the topic of the book—the conceptual history of civility and civilization—back to contemporary debates on norms of civilized behaviour and their impact on civil society. It places the entangled debates on civilization in the age of high imperialism in the context of the creation of a global order, premised on the idea of a hierarchy of societies according to their place in the stages of development, and traces its changes—an increasing importance of the body and of race in the end of the nineteenth century and the discrediting of the European model after the First World War. The Introduction lays out how the concepts of civility and civilization are centrally premised on the creation and management of emotions: it is by transforming their emotions that individuals could take part in the struggle leading to a higher global station for their society.
Daniele Miano
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198786566
- eISBN:
- 9780191828843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198786566.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE, Ancient Religions
In the Introduction there is a discussion of methodologies for the study of ancient deities. In the monograph as a whole a conceptual approach to the goddess Fortuna will be proposed, which partially ...
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In the Introduction there is a discussion of methodologies for the study of ancient deities. In the monograph as a whole a conceptual approach to the goddess Fortuna will be proposed, which partially uses methods of conceptual history and aims at exploring the connection between deities and concepts. The Introduction discusses the advantages and disadvantages of current approaches to ancient deities and ancient religion (structuralism in particular), and explains the rationale for a study based on concepts and conceptual history, as well as the foreseeable benefits and limitations of this approach. This section also outlines the structure of the book.Less
In the Introduction there is a discussion of methodologies for the study of ancient deities. In the monograph as a whole a conceptual approach to the goddess Fortuna will be proposed, which partially uses methods of conceptual history and aims at exploring the connection between deities and concepts. The Introduction discusses the advantages and disadvantages of current approaches to ancient deities and ancient religion (structuralism in particular), and explains the rationale for a study based on concepts and conceptual history, as well as the foreseeable benefits and limitations of this approach. This section also outlines the structure of the book.
