Time, History, and Political Thought

Explores the multiple ways in which different conceptions of time and history have been used to understand politics since late antiquity.

John Robertson (Edited by)

9781009289368, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 June 2023

330 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.6 cm, 0.67 kg

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.

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.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]