Abstract
The main aim of this chapter is to provide a conceptual framework that makes a genuinely comparative survey of the history of political theory/philosophy [hereafter HOP] possible. At present, in political science and philosophy departments, there are survey courses in HOP that cover, roughly, works from Plato to Max Weber. Such courses, and the survey works, they rely upon are generally Eurocentric and mostly male dominated. This chapter discusses two kinds of obstacles to developing a comparative survey of HOP and then discusses the opportunities a comparative HOP generates.
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05 May 2023
Owing to an oversight incorrect acknowledgement text was published in this chapter. The correct acknowledgement text has been updated.
Notes
- 1.
Because of this focus I do not have a distinct section on teaching in this chapter. However, the chapter is based on my experience teaching a large introductory survey course in the history of political theory. In what follows, I presuppose a claim in the vicinity of the thought that “comparative political theory will be most coherent and most interesting with a focus on moral disagreement and justification across multiple distinct, semiautonomous traditions” (March 2009, 565). However, March is focused on research, while here I am focused on teaching.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
I intend to echo here features of the post-colonial project of Young (2000).
- 5.
For an illuminating analysis, see Zarrabi-Zadeh (2015).
- 6.
For a useful corrective, see Fraenkel (2012).
- 7.
These ideas have extraordinary longevity. See, for example, Franks (2010).
- 8.
See, especially, De vita contemplativa or “Of the Contemplative life.” I do not mean to suggest that Philo is always this radical. There are plenty of works where he accepts various kinds of hierarchy, including slavery and gender hierarchy. For a useful introduction, see Engberg-Pedersen (1999).
- 9.
- 10.
In order to illustrate the “flowering of faith” as a “result of the institutional separation of church and state,” as “anticipated by” Tocqueville (and others), Ryan mentions that today the “United States is highly religious in the sociologist’s, not the theologian’s, sense [… with a] minority of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and animists among the population, there is a striking variety of Christian churches, including the hard-to-place Mormons, who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ” (Ryan 2012, 985).
- 11.
- 12.
One can also find the idea in Cahnman and Boskoff (1964, 51ff.).
- 13.
For a sophisticated introduction to medieval Jewish reflection on these matters, see Hovsha (2015).
- 14.
It is notable that Carole Pateman’s The Sexual Contract is uncited, while her Participation and Democratic Theory is praised (Ryan 2012, 1052).
- 15.
For details, including his dismissive treatment of Harriet Taylor Mill, see Schliesser (2020). Arendt is treated, in passing, with more respect (especially in the notes). But a natural reading of the body of the text is that “totalitarianism” as a concept is now out of date and encourages muddled thinking (Ryan 2012, 916).
- 16.
For an analysis of what I call platonic feminism, see Lascano and Schliesser (2022).
- 17.
He notes eugenics in the context of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, which is mentioned more often than Arendt, Wollstonecraft, and Pizan combined.
- 18.
Obviously, one may belong to a non-traceable-to-Plato tradition and be critical of modernity. But I treat that as direct voice. I thank the editors for discussion.
- 19.
The whole piece is worth reading.
- 20.
I dislike the terms “non-western”/“western” and the role it plays in analysis. But it seems fine to use it in context of this dialectic. The rise of “western philosophy” is itself tied to the rise of study of comparative civilizations in the late part of the age of imperialism and subsequent decolonization. See Schliesser (2022) for some data and speculation.
- 21.
Of course, this reductive presentation does no justice to a serious author.
- 22.
Graeber and Wengrow (2018) have been astute on this.
- 23.
See Graeber and Wengrow (2018).
- 24.
Fanon has a complex relationship to these issues (Bird-Pollan 2014).
- 25.
For more on this, see Schliesser (2017b).
- 26.
- 27.
On this, see, for example, Schliesser (2019).
- 28.
What this reveals is that direct voice need not be an author’s intention.
- 29.
- 30.
See Schliesser (2017a). Once one is alert to it, one can find fascinating variants on the social contract in pre-moderns, Lucretius, Manegold, and Suarez (all of which I have used in exams).
- 31.
For one important article that explores the significance of this, see O’Neill (1998).
Recommended Readings
Ackerly, Brooke and Rochana Bajpai. 2017. Comparative Political Thought. In Methods in Analytical Political Theory, edited by Adrian Blau, 270–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Henkel, Jeremy. 2016. “Should Introductory Comparative Philosophy Courses Be Structured Around Topics or Traditions?” ASIA Network Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts 23(2): 91–106.
Jenco, Leigh Kathryn. 2007. “What Does Heaven Ever Say?” A Methods-Centered Approach to Cross-Cultural Engagement. American Political Science Review 101 (4): 741–55.
Olberding, Amy. 2017. “Philosophical Exclusion and Conversational Practices.” Philosophy East and West 67 (4): 1023–38.
Schiltz, Elizabeth. 2014. “How to Teach Comparative Philosophy.” Teaching Philosophy 37 (2): 215–31.
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Acknowledgment
I am grateful to the editors of this volume for their invitation and many editorial improvements. The usual caveats apply.
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Schliesser, E. (2023). Teaching Comparative History of Political Philosophy. In: Griffioen, A.L., Backmann, M. (eds) Pluralizing Philosophy’s Past. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13405-0_12
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