The History of Concepts as a Style of Political Theorizing
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885102001001007 |
| Published date | 01 July 2002 |
| Date | 01 July 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The History of Concepts as a
Style of Political Theorizing:
Quentin Skinner’s and Reinhart Koselleck’s
Subversion of Normative Political Theory
Kari Palonen University of Jyväskylä, Finland
abstract: The history of concepts has partly replaced the older style of the ‘history
of ideas’ and can be extended to a critique of normative political theory and, thereby,
understood as an indirect style of political theorizing. A common feature in Quentin
Skinner’s and Reinhart Koselleck’s writings lies in their critique of the unhistorical and
depoliticizing use of concepts. This concerns especially the classical contractarian
theories, and both authors remark that this still holds for work by their contemporary
heirs, such as Rawls, Habermas and other contemporary normative theorists.
Conceptual history offers us a chance to turn the contestability, contingency and
historicity of the use of concepts into instruments for conceptualizing politics. The
alternative, indirect mode of political theorizing Skinner and Koselleck practise
consists of a ‘Verfremdungseffekt’, which helps us to distance ourselves from thinking
in terms of contemporary paradigms, unquestioned conventions, given constellations of
alternatives or implicit value judgements. In the Skinnerian variant the conceptual
changes are made intelligible through analysis of the rhetorical redescriptions among
the political agents, whereas Koselleck thematizes the differences in the temporal index
of concepts. The subversive aspect in the history of concepts consists of the explication
and historical variation of the tacit normative content in the use of concepts.
key words: conceptual history, normative political theory, Quentin Skinner,
Reinhart Koselleck
The Challenge of Conceptual History
The history of concepts, conceptual history or Begriffsgeschichte, has gained an
increasing amount of interest in recent years, and has partly replaced the older
style of the ‘history of ideas’. In this article I argue in favour of another extension
of conceptual history, namely its critique of normative political theory, and I dis-
cuss its role and significance as a possible alternative style of political theorizing.
91
article
Dr Kari Palonen, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy/Political Science, POB 35 FIN-40351 Jyväskylä, Finland.
Email: kpalonen@cc.jyu.fi
EJPT
European Journal
of Political Theory
© SAGE Publications Ltd,
London, Thousand Oaks
and New Delhi
issn 1474-8851
1(1)91–106;024421
EPT 1/1 articles 11/6/02 8:33 am Page 91
What today is called ‘political theory’ largely remains in the shadow of a search
for timeless concepts. Over three decades ago, Quentin Skinner criticized ‘the
Fregean assumption that meanings must somehow be timeless’,1an assumption
that is particularly unrealistic and irrelevant for political concepts. Conceptual
history offers a chance to turn the contestability, contingency and historicity of
the use of concepts into special instruments for conceptualizing politics. It is in
terms of this perspective that it can also serve as an alternative to normative
theory which attempts to minimize the role of politics as activity. It forms a
variant virtù theory of politics, to use the apt formula put forth by Bonnie
Honig.2
I want to dispute the normativist attempt at claiming a monopoly in political
theory in favour of conceptual history as a more appropriate paradigm. For this
purpose I will (1) discuss Quentin Skinner’s and Reinhart Koselleck’s critiques of
the unhistorical and depoliticizing use of concepts in the classical contractarian
theories; (2) take up their remarks on the work of Rawls, Habermas and some
other normative political theorists; and (3) appraise the understanding of con-
ceptual change as a key element in contractarian theories as compared with the
perspectives of Koselleck and Skinner. Finally, I want to explicate the special
possibilities of conceptual history as a style of political theorizing that accepts the
contestability and historicity of the concepts.
Skinner on Natural and Political Liberty
The contractarian theories which juxtapose the ‘state of nature’ and ‘the state of
civilization’ are the best examples of an appeal to natural liberty. The formation
of a polity through the signing of a ‘contract’ in order to get rid of the state of
nature turns the polity, as an aspect of civilization, into a realm in which the
maximal freedom of the state of nature is irrevocably lost. However, the con-
tractarians retain the state of nature as a model, of which as much as possible
should be maintained in order to minimize the loss of freedom.
The polity of the contract theories is ‘depoliticized’ as far as possible in the
sense of minimizing the significance of political action. The contract constructs
a special space that must be maintained when facing the continuous danger of a
relapse into the state of nature or to any state of unpredictability analogous to it.
This topos against politicking could be formulated as follows: the more uncon-
trolled politicking is present in a situation, the greater the danger. Political action
is reduced to specific moments, to the act of contracting and its analogies: for
example, the formation of the constitution as a condition of a singular polity,
holding elections in order to choose a government, or legislation as an act of
constructing the difference between legal and illegal. Even in these cases, the
criteria of good policy aim at the stability of the state by minimizing the con-
tingency in decision-making situations.
To sketch an alternative to this approach, I quote Quentin Skinner’s answer to
European Journal of Political Theory 1(1)
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