C.J. Nederman, Community and the Rise of Commercial Society: Political Economy and Political Theory in Nicholas Oresme’s De Moneta abstract P. Zagorin, Hobbes without Grotius abstract A. Cromartie, Theology and Politics in Richard Hooker’s Thought abstract A. Pitt, The Religion of the Moderns: Freedom and Authenticity in Constant’s De la Religion abstract D.E. Miller, John Stuart Mill’s Civic Liberalism abstract E. Low, Class and the Conceptualization of Citizenship in Twentieth-Century Britain abstract L. O’Sullivan, Michael Oakeshott on European Political History abstract J. Coleman, The History of Political Thought in a Modern University: The First Henry Tudor Memorial Lecture abstract Book Reviews Books Received Selected Abstracts
THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT IN A MODERN UNIVERSITY: THE FIRST HENRY TUDOR MEMORIAL LECTURE (Delivered March 1999, University of Durham)
Excerpt: "It is not clear to me that there is any longer the institutional will to train students, as both Henry Tudor and I were trained, in the languages, histories and philosophies that enable one to approach the texts of classical, medieval and renaissance intellectual history in particular. Today a student who is drawn to a study of pre-modern ideas and historical settings will be asked why on earth such an irrelevant subject matter should attract any interest or indeed, funding. Even in Politics Departments there has been a tendency to keep alive only small pockets of normative theorists who have neither interest in nor knowledge of the history of their own discipline or of the languages they use with such confidence. For this reason, I want to say something about what I take to be the importance of studying the history of political thought in a modern university, because I think that we are gradually losing sight of a range of ways of thinking and speaking that will have, and is already having, dire consequences for the more everyday world we live in."
Janet Coleman, Government Department, LSE, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE
THEOLOGY AND POLITICS IN RICHARD HOOKER’S THOUGHT
Abstract: Although Richard Hooker’s private attitudes were clericalist and authoritarian, his constitutional theory subordinated clergymen to laymen and monarchy to parliamentary statute. This article explains why his political ideas were nonetheless appropriate to his presumed religious purposes. It notes a very intimate connection between his teleological conception of a law and his hostility towards conventional high Calvinist ideas about predestination. The most significant anomaly within his broadly Aristotelian world-view was his belief that politics is nothing but a means to cope with sin. This too can be linked to his religious ends, but it creates an ambiguity that made his doctrines usable by Locke.
Alan Cromartie, Dept of Politics, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 218, Reading RG6 6AA. Email: a.d.t.cromartie@reading.ac.uk
CLASS AND THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF CITIZENSHIP IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Abstract: This article analyses the role of ideas about class in the conceptualization of citizenship in twentieth-century Britain. It argues that the way in which citizenship was conceptualized involved a process of ideological engagement, by which a specific interpretation of the concept of class was asserted, and other possible interpretations closed off, as a result of particular preferences and priorities. The analysis is pursued through a comparative case study of the way in which two particular thinkers — Henry Jones (1852–1922) and T.H. Marshall (1893–1981) — developed their ideas about citizenship within two different historical contexts in Britain: the late nineteenth century through to the 1910s, and the 1940s through to the 1970s. Jones and Marshall defined their conceptions of citizenship in opposition to notions of class as a basis for social organization, and both saw citizenship as a means by which individuals could trans- cend the boundaries of class. The specific way in which each interpreted the concept of class, however, led to different conclusions as to the process by which this would be achieved, which, in turn, determined the principles upon which they based their conceptions of citizenship.
Eugenia Low, St John’s College, Oxford, OX1 3JP. Email: eugenia.low@sjc.ox.ac.uk
JOHN STUART MILL’S CIVIC LIBERALISM
Abstract: Although it is frequently overlooked, J.S. Mill’s political philosophy has a significant civic component; he is a committed believer in the value of active and disinterested participation in public affairs by the citizens of liberal democracies, and he advocates a programme of civic education intended to cultivate public spirit. In the first half of this essay I present a brief but systematic exploration of his thought’s civic dimension. In the second half I defend Mill’s civic liberalism against various critics who have explicitly or implicitly charged that the civic and liberal components of his political philosophy are inconsistent.
Dale E. Miller, Dept of Philosophy, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0083, USA. Email: demiller@odu.edu
COMMUNITY AND THE RISE OF COMMERCIAL SOCIETY: POLITICAL ECONOMY AND POLITICAL THEORY IN NICHOLAS ORESME’S DE MONETA
Abstract: Nicholas Oresme’s mid-fourteenth-century treatise De moneta falls outside the conventional genres of late medieval scholastic writing: it is neither a commentary, a summa, nor a publicistic tract. Historians of political thought have largely shunned the work. Instead, De moneta has primarily been the object of attention among historians of economic thought. Despite the fact that De moneta certainly contains technical economic analysis of the nature of money in an Aristotelian mode, both the circumstances of its composition and the main lines of its argument suggest that it deserves treatment as a profoundly political work. Oresme’s intention is clearly to advise his countrymen in a pragmatic fashion about a matter of public policy. His specialized economic analysis is merely a propedeutic to his main point. In this sense, the political theory contained in De moneta merits serious attention as an attempt to bring economic concerns to bear on the duties of rulers and the needs of their subjects.
Cary J. Nederman, Dept of Political Science, University of Arizona, 315 Social Sciences, PO Box 210027, Tucson, AZ 85721-0027, USA
MICHAEL OAKESHOTT ON EUROPEAN POLITICAL HISTORY
Abstract: This article examines Michael Oakeshott’s views on European political history, based on the essays, reviews, lectures and unpublished works which he produced throughout his intellectual career. These pieces are less familiar than his writings on political philosophy, but deal with the same themes, notably the relationships between individuals, groups and the state. The conclusion is that Oakeshott was telling a new version of an old tale, the history of the development of a fundamental division in European political thought and practice between two contrasting forms of human association, one communal and consensual, the other individualistic and contractarian.
L. O’Sullivan, Rm. 112, Bentham Project, 26 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 6BT. Email: uczwldo@ucl.ac.uk
THE RELIGION OF THE MODERNS: FREEDOM AND AUTHENTICITY IN CONSTANT’S DE LA RELIGION
Alan Pitt, Bentham Project, Department of History, University College, Gower Street, London WC1E 6B
Abstract: This article analyses Constant’s largest work — De la Religion — in an attempt to clarify the ethical foundations of his political thought. The book presents his most fully developed ideas on history and society. A number of themes are discussed: Constant’s theism; his belief in the growing authenticity of religious belief as a driving force in human history; the important role played by Rousseau’s thought in his understanding of liberty. A study of De la Religion (it is argued) reveals that his enthusiasm for commercial society was in no sense that of a simple individualist.
HOBBES WITHOUT GROTIUS
Abstract: This essay presents a critique of current views of Hugo Grotius which erroneously see him as a major theorist of natural rights and a formative influence upon the rights theory of Thomas Hobbes. Especially singled out for criticism are the misconceptions due to Richard Tuck in a number of writings that discuss the political ideas of Grotius and Hobbes and the relationship between them. In an examination of Hobbes’s conception of natural rights, the essay reaffirms its originality and notes its revolutionary potential contrary to the main intention of Hobbes’s own political doctrine.
Perez Zagorin, 2990 Beaumont Farm Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA. Email: pz3p@virginia.edu
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