Concepts and Reason in Political Theory - the brand-new collection from Iain Hampsher-Monk

This volume brings together a selection of Iain Hampsher-Monk’s writings on questions of historicity and rationality in political theory, together with a substantial introduction written for the volume. 

The work revolves around two loci: the relationship between history and philosophy in the analysis of key concepts such as liberty, democracy and toleration, and the role of reason in political science’s explanations. 

Despite a background in PPE, the author played a major role in the ‘historical’, revolution in political theory. Here, his reflections on the historicity of concepts in political science are presented alongside articles dealing with the role and limitations of economic modes of rationality in social and political theorising. Unifying these themes is a commitment to an understanding of human action as conscious and essentially meaning-bearing and the case for a human science rooted in such self-understandings. 

'Iain Hampsher-Monk is one of our leading historians of political thought. These remarkable essays display his range and erudition, and demonstrate why the study of political thought remains an essential basis for understanding politics.'
Andrew Gamble, Queens’ College Cambridge

Keywords: Political Theory