Political Thought and Political Thinkers

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University of Chicago Press, Mar 28, 1998 - Biography & Autobiography - 402 pages
Ethics described Judith Shklar as "a towering presence" at Harvard for decades, an "influential teacher and mentor to many of the best known political theorists working today in the United States." One of this century's most important liberal scholars, she is remembered for her "sharp intellect, forceful personality, and passionate intellectual honesty and curiosity." Political Thought and Political Thinkers makes startlingly clear her role in the reinvigoration of liberal theory that has been taking place over the last two decades.

This second volume of Shklar's work—which follows the 1997 publication of Redeeming American Political Thought—brings together heretofore uncollected (and several unpublished) essays on a number of themes, including the place of the intellect in the modern political world and the dangers of identity politics. While many of these essays have been previously published, they remain far from accessible. In collecting the work scattered over the past forty years in journals and other publications, noted political theorist Stanley Hoffmann provides an essential guide to Shklar's thought, complemented by George Kateb's comprehensive introduction to her work. Hoffmann's selection, which includes Shklar's classic essay "The Liberalism of Fear," showcases her distinctive defense of liberalism and follows her explorations in this history of moral and political thought as she engages with Bergson, Arendt, and Rousseau.

Political Thought and Political Thinkers displays one of the century's most compelling and flexible intellects in action and is the definitive collection of her work on European history and thinkers.

"Shklar's legacy is an inspiring example of liberal thought at its arresting best, unflinchingly courageous and unmoved by the dreary and unmeaning harmonies conjured up by theories of justice and rights."—John Gray, Times Literary Supplement

Judith N. Shklar (1928-1992) was Cowles Professor of Government at Harvard University and the author of nine books in political theory.

From inside the book

Contents

The Liberalism of Fear
3
Political Theory and the Rule of Law
21
Obligation Loyalty Exile
38
The Bonds of Exile
56
Learning about Thought
73
Squaring the Hermeneutic Circle
75
Politics and the Intellect
94
Learning without Knowing
105
Ideology Hunting The Case of James Harrington
206
Montesquieu and the New Republicanism
244
Reading the Social Contract
262
JeanJacques Rousseau and Equality
276
Jean DAlembert and the Rehabilitation of History
294
Bergson and the Politics of Intuition
317
Nineteen EightyFour Should Political Theory Care?
339
Rethinking the Past
353

Subversive Genealogies
132
The Political Theory of Utopia From Melancholy to Nostalgia
161
What Is the Use of Utopia?
175
Learning about Thinkers
191
Poetry and the Political Imagination in Popes An Essay on Man
193
Hannah Arendt as Pariah
362
The Work of Michael Walzer
376
Index
387
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