Concepts and Reason in Political Theory

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. There are two loci around which the work revolves - one is the relationship between history and philosophy in the analysis of key concepts such as liberty, democracy and toleration, the other is 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, and his contributions to and reflections on this are included in the volume. Also included are 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 a commitment to a human science that is rooted in such self-understandings.