History of Political Thought – Hoping for Clarity

The Idea of Liberalism

For B. A. B., who continually asked for this to be written. ‘Liberalism’ was concerned [with what] I have called the menace of ‘sovereign’ authority and with constitutional devices to reduce it. If it had any theoretical understanding of a state it was that of an association in terms of assured ‘natural rights’ recognized asContinue reading “The Idea of Liberalism”

A Reflection on What Moves Us: Power & Force

In what is, in my view, one of the most audacious works of political theory written in the twentieth century, The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt formulates a distinction between two ways in which human beings relate to one another: power & force. This pairing is specified by her to have a meaning that is notContinue reading “A Reflection on What Moves Us: Power & Force”