Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas and Beyond

Adrian Blau (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

320 Seiten

2026
The British Academy (Verlag)
978-1-83624-575-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Quentin Skinner is one of the world’s leading historians. His work includes pioneering studies of Machiavelli and Hobbes, as well as important research on changing ideas of liberty and the state. His classic 1969 essay ‘Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas’ was a ground-breaking challenge to prevailing ideas about how to read historical texts, and helped to found an influential school of interpretation. The essay is still the most widely read article in the area, and continues to breed debate. This book celebrates the 50th anniversary of Skinner’s seminal essay with chapters that offer constructive critiques and expansions of his ideas, drawing in part on developments in digital humanities, empirical social science, and other areas. We focus not just on theory but also practice: what are the practical implications of these arguments for other researchers? At the end of the book, Professor Skinner responds to these commentaries.

Autor

Adrian Blau is Professor of Politics at King’s College London. His research interests include the history of political thought and other issues in political theory/philosophy, including corruption, democracy and rationality.

Inhalt

Skinner's Historical and Theoretical Foundations

1. Understanding ‘Meaning and Understanding’: Context, Content, And Discontent, ADRIAN BLAU

2. Yet Another Contest of the Faculties? Quentin Skinner on Meaning and Understanding in the History of Philosophy, JAMES GORDON FINLAYSON

3. Learning from the History of Political Thought: The Figure of the Cook in Skinner, Passmore, Lenin, and Plato, MELISSA LANE

4. Quentin Skinner and the Historical Interpretation of Political Philosophy, AL MARTINICH

Expanding Skinner’s Contexts

5. Meaning, Context, Interpretations in the Islamic Tradition: Provincializing Skinnerian Contextualism, HUMEIRA IQTIDAR

6. Meaning And Understanding in the History of Ancient Greek Political Thought, CAROL ATACK

7. Methods v. Purposes in Skinner: For a Textualist Approach to Constitutional and Parliamentary Debates, ROCHANA BAJPAI

Ideology, Rhetoric and Language

8. Quentin Skinner and the Analysis of Ideology, JONATHAN LEADER MAYNARD

9. Ideological Innovation, Rhetorical Political Analysis and English Protest Songs, ALAN FINLAYSON

10. How (Not) to Understand Nature: Margaret Cavendish’s Response to the Rhetorical Situation of the Scientific Revolutions, SOPHIA HATZISAVVIDOU

11. Quentin Skinner’s Approach from a Sociolinguistic Perspective, SALI TAGLIAMONTE

Contextual Analysis in the Digital Age

12. Computational Methods in Intellectual History, MIKKO TOLONEN and YANN RYAN

13. Contextual Analysis in the Computer Age: The Case of Hobbes, JACQUELINE BASU and ALISON MCQUEEN

Response from Quentin Skinner

14. A Rejoinder, QUENTIN SKINNER

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.3.2026
• Reihe/Serie: Proceedings of the British Academy ; 281
• Zusatzinfo: 25 Illustrations
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 156 x 234 mm
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Geschichtstheorie / Historik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften
• ISBN-10: 1-83624-575-0 / 1836245750
• ISBN-13: 978-1-83624-575-9 / 9781836245759
• Zustand: Neuware