Visions of Politics

Quentin Skinner9780521581059, 0-521-58105-2, 0521589266

The first of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world’s leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most important philosophical and methodological statements written over the past four decades, each carefully revised for publication in this form. In a series of seminal essays Professor Skinner sets forth the intellectual principles that inform his work. Writing as a practising historian, he considers the theoretical difficulties inherent in the pursuit of knowledge and interpretation, and elucidates the methodology which finds its expression in his two successive volumes. All of Professor Skinner’s work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays, many of which are now recognised classics, provide a fascinating and convenient digest of the development of his thought.

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Table of contents :
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Contents……Page 7
General preface……Page 8
VOLUME 2: RENAISSANCE VIRTUES……Page 11
VOLUME 3: HOBBES AND CIVIL SCIENCE……Page 12
Acknowledgements……Page 13
Conventions……Page 16
1 Introduction: Seeing things their way……Page 19
I……Page 26
II……Page 27
III……Page 40
II……Page 45
III……Page 58
IV……Page 69
I……Page 75
II……Page 77
III……Page 85
IV……Page 90
V……Page 97
VI……Page 104
II……Page 108
III……Page 111
IV……Page 114
II……Page 121
III……Page 125
IV……Page 132
V……Page 140
VI……Page 142
I……Page 146
II……Page 150
III……Page 154
IV……Page 158
V……Page 161
I……Page 163
II……Page 166
III……Page 173
I……Page 176
II……Page 177
III……Page 178
IV……Page 181
V……Page 183
VI……Page 187
VII……Page 189
10 Retrospect: Studying rhetoric and conceptual change……Page 193
Bibliography……Page 206
Index……Page 223