The Conceptual History of Social Justice

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Important Research ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Addition ◽  
Political Vocabulary

Social justice is a crucial ideal in contemporary political thought. Yet the concept of social justice is a recent addition to our political vocabulary, and comparatively little is known about its introduction into political debate or its early theoretical trajectory. Some important research has begun to address this issue, adding a valuable historical perspective to present-day controversies about the concept. This article uses this literature to examine two questions. First, how does the modern idea of social justice differ from previous conceptualisations of justice? Second, why and when did social justice first emerge into political discourse?

Utopophobia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Estlund
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Sound Theory ◽  
Theory Versus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Practical Guidance

Throughout the history of political philosophy and politics, there has been continual debate about the roles of idealism versus realism. For contemporary political philosophy, this debate manifests in notions of ideal theory versus nonideal theory. Nonideal thinkers shift their focus from theorizing about full social justice, asking instead which feasible institutional and political changes would make a society more just. Ideal thinkers, on the other hand, question whether full justice is a standard that any society is likely ever to satisfy. And, if social justice is unrealistic, are attempts to understand it without value or importance, and merely utopian? This book argues against thinking that justice must be realistic, or that understanding justice is only valuable if it can be realized. The book does not offer a particular theory of justice, nor does it assert that justice is indeed unrealizable—only that it could be, and this possibility upsets common ways of proceeding in political thought. The book's author engages critically with important strands in traditional and contemporary political philosophy that assume a sound theory of justice has the overriding, defining task of contributing practical guidance toward greater social justice. Along the way, it counters several tempting perspectives, including the view that inquiry in political philosophy could have significant value only as a guide to practical political action, and that understanding true justice would necessarily have practical value, at least as an ideal arrangement to be approximated. Demonstrating that unrealistic standards of justice can be both sound and valuable to understand, the book stands as a trenchant defense of ideal theory in political philosophy.

Seneca the Elder, the Controuersia Figurata, and the Political Discourse of the Early Empire

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-150
Author(s):  
Matthew Leigh
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Specific Event ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Seneca The Elder

This paper studies examples of how exponents of Roman declamation could insert into arguments on the trivial, even fantastic, cases known as controuersiae statements of striking relevance to the political culture of the triumviral and early imperial period. This is particularly apparent in the Controuersiae of Seneca the Elder but some traces remain in the Minor Declamations attributed to Quintilian. The boundaries separating Rome itself from the declamatory city referred to by modern scholars as Sophistopolis are significantly blurred even in those instances where the exercise does not turn on a specific event from Roman history, and there is much to be gained from how the declaimers deploy Roman historical examples. Some of the most sophisticated instances of mediated political comment exploit the employment of universalizing sententiae, which have considerable bite when they are related to contemporary Roman discourse and experience. The declamation schools are a forum for thinking through the implications of the transformation of the Roman state and deserve a place within any history of Roman political thought.

Marsilius of Padua and Ogyu Sorai: Community and Language in the Political Discourse in Late Medieval Europe and Tokugawa Japan

2002 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Shogimen
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Marsilius Of Padua ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ogyu Sorai ◽  
European Thought

The article explores a cross-cultural approach to the history of political thought. With reference to Maruyama Masao's classic equation of fourteenth-century European scholasticism with eighteenth-century Japanese Confucianism, a comparison between Marsilius of Padua and Ogyu Sorai reveals, behind their ostensibly similar “communal functionalist” outlook, their contrasting views on the role of language as a medium for political communication. Marsilius believed in human's associative power by means of such linguistic communication as oratory and discussion, whereas Sorai underrated speech to favor government by ritual. This contrast has repercussions for the two traditions of political thought in Western Europe and Japan. The exalted status of speech in political communication constituted a mainstream of late medieval and early modern political discourse in Western Europe, whereas the Japanese Confucian idea of government by ritual survived until the mid-nineteenth century when it clashed with European thought then being imported into Japan.

The Two Faces of Contingency

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Palonen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

The work of Pierre Rosanvallon is discussed here from the perspective of the conceptual history of “politics” (La Politique) and of “the political” (La Politique). In Rosanvallon's early work in the second half of the 1970s, there is a marked defence of the autonomy of politics, as a manifestation of contingency, against the language of “society,” then dominant in the social sciences and philosophy. Since the 1980s, Le Politique become a fashionable concept in French political thought, a phenomenon brought about by the reception of both Schmitt and Heidegger, in opposition to mere la politique. Although Rosanvallon can partly be linked to this fashion, he differs from his more philosophical colleagues in two respects: his concept of the political is more historically informed and he refrains from showing contempt for the activity of politics.

Political Lexicon in L.M. Kravchuk’s Language and Thought

2019 ◽  
pp. 235-241
Author(s):  
Nina Yatsenko
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
First Time ◽  
Linear Text ◽  
Political Vocabulary

The article deals with the semantic-functional analysis of socio-political lexicon of L.M. Kravchuk. The most relevant thematic groups of vocabulary are highlighted, his role as an upgrader of the Ukrainian political thought of the late XX century is stressed, which ensures the active formation and functioning of national political discourse. The purpose of the article is to analyze the political vocabulary of L.M. Kravchuk the first president of Ukraine during the period of independence. The material for analysis is selected from his speeches, interviews, press conferences, briefings (Leonid Kravchuk’s publication (There is such a state – Ukraine, published in Kyiv in 1992). The vocabulary analysis is conducted for the first time. In the political discourse of L.M. Kravchuk on the basis of structural and semantic analysis of the language of his journalism, we distinguish the following thematic groups: names of bodies of state power: names of political governmental forms, arrangements, currents; names of political parties, associations, meetings, social groups; names of political and historical processes; names of documents, laws, resolutions; names of ethnic communities; names of socio-economic processes, concepts, monetary units; names of direct policy subjects; names of diplomatic concepts; names of parties’ supporters; names of individual subjects of any activity; names of individual activities; the names of the moral and ideological sphere of public life. It is shown that semantic and evaluative lexemas’ dynamic is shown by their syntagmatic relations, including connectivity. Examples of extensions of linear text connections of a word in Kravchuk’s discourse are adjectives. Public Speeches of the First President of Ukraine L.M. Kravchuk convincingly reveals the individuality of his style, including the use of synonymous means. Journalism created by L.M. Kravchuk is rich in idiomatic phrasal phrases and terminological persistent phrases. Phraseological and terminological units under consideration perform an important intensification role, in particular, act as expressive markers of his political thought.

Between historical semantics and pragmatics

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasi Ihalainen
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Historical Semantics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends

This paper discusses the methodology of conceptual history, a branch of the study of the history of political thought which focuses on the changing meanings of political concepts over the course of time. It is suggested here that methodological disputes among historians of political thought frequently arise out of differing theories of language and meaning and that historians should be more open-minded to the idea of combining various research strategies in their work. Conceptual history, for instance, can be viewed as the combination of historical versions of semantics and pragmatics. While the study of the macro-level semantic changes in the language of politics can reveal interesting long-term trends and innovative uses of language, a contextual analysis of speech acts is also needed when the rhetorical aspects of conceptual change are traced. This interaction of semantic and pragmatic analysis in conceptual history is illustrated by examples originating from eighteenth-century political preaching.

scholarly journals Politisk idéhistorie: Fire tilgange

Politik ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Thorup
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
History Of

The article discusses the importance of ideas for political analysis. Ideas are more than random or inconsequential rationalisations of hard interests. They constitute and effect something in and of themselves. The article therefore presents the four most important and influential approaches to the study of the history of political thought: Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis, Michael Freeden’s ideology analysis, Quentin Skinner’s legitimization analysis and Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptual history.

5. Thinking about politics: the new boys on the block

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Freeden
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
History Of

Ideology is a mode of thinking about politics. However it is not the only mode and in ‘Thinking about politics: the new boys on the block’ alternative modes are considered. Also, morphological analysis is only one means of accessing ideological meaning. Political philosophy has a long history of contributing to political thinking and offers a different perspective to ideology. Another banner under which political thought has been studied has emerged in the form of conceptual history. There are strong affinities between modern conceptual history and the study of ideology.

scholarly journals A Step Forward

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
João Feres Júnior
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Graphic Design ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Concepts ◽  
Paper Format

Contributions to the History of Concepts has now completed two years of existence. Its history has been closely tied to the annual meetings of the History of Political and Social Concepts Group (HPSCG). Talks about evolving from the HPSCG’s Newsletter to an academic periodical publication began in Bilbao, in 2003. The following year, at the 7th International Conference on the History of Concepts, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, we designed a plan to create a new journal that would serve as a conduit for researchers working with conceptual history, as well as for scholars interested in other related fields, such as intellectual history, the history of political thought, the history of ideas, etc. After a great deal of ground work, the journal was finally launched in 2005, both in digital and paper format, with an elegant graphic design and a host of excellent texts by distinguished scholars in the fields of conceptual history, intellectual history, and the history of political thought, such as Quentin Skinner, Melvin Richter, Kari Palonen, and Robert Darnton. The response from the international academic community was immediate and very encouraging. Since then positive feedback from a growing audience worldwide has been constantly on the rise.

6. Koselleck and conceptual history

2021 ◽  
pp. 84-93
Author(s):  
Richard Whatmore
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Systematic Knowledge

‘Koselleck and conceptual history’ reviews how the study of the history of political thought ended up as the site of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. The question to ask is what had gone wrong with the German traditions of philology and lexicography that is associated with studies of the classical past? Systematic knowledge can be defined through foundational concepts. The disaster of modern history and the failure of historical sensibility in Germany can be used as new techniques to investigate how the past explained the sense of national and cultural failure. The project of ‘conceptual history’ was formulated in the 1950s by Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, and Reinhart Koselleck.

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