Politics, Language, and Time: Essays on Political Thought and History

Pocock, J. G. A.

ISBN 10: 0226671399 / ISBN 13: 9780226671390

Published by University of Chicago Press, Illinois, 1989

About this Item

Book is clean and tight. No markings on inside. Front cover has one bent corner. Page block has some staining. This is an important collection of essays by the leading historian of political thought, announcing an approach to the study of that subject that has become enormously influential.

Seller Inventory # TJ230224-8

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Politics, Language, and Time: Essays on Political Thought and History
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, Illinois
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226671399
• ISBN 13: 9780226671390
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Weight: 2 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

In his first essay, "Languages and Their Implications," J. G. A. Pocock announces the emergence of the history of political thought as a discipline apart from political philosophy. Traditionally, "history" of political thought has meant a chronological ordering of intellectual systems without attention to political languages; but it is through the study of those languages and of their changes, Pocock claims, that political thought will at last be studied historically.

Pocock argues that the solution has already been approached by, first, the linguistic philosophers, with their emphasis on the importance of language study to understanding human thought, and, second, by Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, with its notion of controlling intellectual paradigms. Those paradigms within and through which the scientist organizes his intellectual enterprise may well be seen as analogous to the worlds of political discourse in which political problems are posed and political solutions are proffered. Using this notion of successive paradigms, Pocock demonstrates its effectiveness by analyzing a wide range of subjects, from ancient Chinese philosophy to Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Burke.

About the Author

J. G. A. Pocock is the Harry C. Black Professor of History at the Johns Hopkins University. Among his many books are The Ancient Constitution and the Federal Law and Virtue, Commerce, and History.