Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas

by Quentin Skinner

Source: History and Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1969), pp. 3-53 Published by: Wiley for Wesleyan University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2504188 .

Genres: History

52 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2013

About the author

Educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a Fellowship upon obtaining a double-starred first in History, Quentin Skinner accepted, however, a teaching Fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he taught until 2008, except for four years in the 1970s spent at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1978 he was appointed to the chair of Political Science at Cambridge University, and subsequently regarded as one of the two principal members (along with J.G.A. Pocock) of the influential 'Cambridge School' of the history of political thought, best known for its attention to the 'languages' of political thought.

Skinner's primary interest in the 1970s and 1980s was the modern idea of the state, which resulted in two of his most highly regarded works, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume I: The Renaissance and The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume II: The Age of Reformation.

Reviews

[Lucía ౨ৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sinceramente, no sabía muy bien cómo Skinner iba a conseguir salir en la última parte del escrito del embrollo que él mismo había creado en las primeras páginas, pero lo ha conseguido y, es más, ha captado mi atención. Tal y como él dice, es muy difícil encontrar la solución que buscamos en escritos de autores pasados, pues cada cual suele pensar en temas, por así decirlo, universales con matices específicos y, sobretodo, con intenciones distintas. La historia, aún así, sirve para apreciar la distinción entre lo que es necesario y lo que es producto de nuestros propios arreglos contingentes (es la clave para analizarnos). Sin embargo, en lo que respecta a las respuestas que deseamos conseguir, sólo podemos encontrarlas en nosotros mismos, no en nadie más.

[Abdullah Mirza · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most succinct and yet penetrating critique of everything wrong with historians of ideas; yet SOMEHOW, at the end, he does philosophers an UNBELIEVABLE TURN in offering us a way out of our own doomed system which at the SAME TIME unlocks the door to GENUINE SELF-KNOWLEGE which was the whole bloody goal of this philosophy business to begin with. Read this and do some soul searching, folks. Think about what it really means.