Not available to order

Publication date:

16 March 2009

Length of book:

342 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781461636564

Approaches to Political Thought raises three important questions concerning traditional political thought: (1) Why study the political writings and ideas of Plato, Machiavelli, and other long-dead writers? (2) Who among the writers, and which of their works, are worth studying? (3) How should they be studied? The book then explores ten contemporary approaches to understanding political thought and the diverse answers to these questions. The approaches covered include those of Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Eric Voegelin, Sheldon Wolin, the Cambridge School (Quentin Skinner and J.G.A. Pocock), Psychobiography, Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School (Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas), Hermeneutics (Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer), Michel Foucault, and Feminist Criticism (Susan Moller Okin and Jean Elshtain). Each chapter includes an introductory essay and edited selections that illustrate or discuss that approach. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and suggestions for further exploration, including books, articles, and web sites. This exploration of contending contemporary approaches to political thought touches upon ongoing methodological and philosophical issues that are relevant to several academic disciplines, including political science, history, philosophy, and psychology.
Any student who becomes interested in political theory needs to understand at some point that there are a multiplicity of ways to approach and interpret the canonical texts and the issues they address. William L. Richter here provides within the covers of one volume a very useful compendium of both primary and secondary essays to help create that awareness of hermeneutic diversity and contestation.