Event overview
This seminar is a round table devoted to Professor Michael Freeden's latest book, 'The Political Theory of Political Thinking'. The author will introduce his book and Professor Saul Newman and Dr Simon Griffiths of the Department of Politics will act as discussants.
'The Political Theory of Political Thinking: The Anatomy of a Practice' explores what it means to maintain that human beings think politically, and what is distinctive about that kind of thinking. That question is all-too infrequently asked by political theorists, or is dealt with through abstractions and dichotomies. The book examines the actual patterns people display when thinking politically, identifying six features of political thinking. They include the role of making ultimate decisions and regulating all social affairs, ranking collective priorities, mobilising or withholding support for groups, conceptualising social order and stability as well as disorder and instability, projecting future visions and constructing plans for society, and engaging the power embedded in language in the form of reason, rhetoric, emotion or menace. The untidiness and occasional failures of thinking politically are acknowledged alongside its quest for neatness and finality. Case studies are drawn both from professional political theorists and philosophers and from vernacular usage: politicians, political commentators, or protest groups. Both contemporary and historical evidence from different cultures is utilized in illustrating the theoretical framework of the book. This is the first systematic study of political thinking as a cluster of thought-practices, combining insights from traditional and recent political theory, the study of language and discourse, and political science. It aspires to challenge many conventional understanding of political thought in the current literature, to tease out what is political-not philosophical or ethical-in political theory, and to characterise it as a complex and ubiquitous social practice present at all points of human interaction and at diverse levels of articulations.
Michael Freeden is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Nottingham and Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Oxford. His books include 'The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform' (Oxford, 1978); 'Liberalism Divided: A Study in British Thought 1914-1939' (Oxford, 1986); 'Rights' (Milton Keynes, 1991); 'Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach' (Oxford, 1996); 'Ideology: A Very Short Introduction' (Oxford, 2003); 'Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and 20th Century Progressive Thought' (Princeton, 2005); 'The Political Theory of Political Thinking' (Oxford, 2013) and 'The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies'(co-edited, Oxford, 2013). He is the founder-editor of the 'Journal of Political Ideologies'. In 2012 he was awarded the Sir Isiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the UK Political Studies Association.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar 2014 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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