Modeling Interpretation and the Practice of Political Theory

Political theory offers a great variety of interpretive traditions and models. Today, pluralism is the paradigm. But are all approaches equally useful? What are their limits and possibilities? Can we practice them in isolation, or can we combine them? Modeling Interpretation and the Practice of Political Theory addresses these questions in a refreshing and hands- on manner. It not only models in the abstract, but also tests in practice eight basic schemes of interpretation with which any ambitious reader of political texts should already be familiar. Comprehensive and engaging, the book includes: A straightforward typology of interpretation in political theory. Chapters on the analytical Oxford model, biographical and oeuvre- based interpretation, Skinner’s Cambridge School, the esoteric model, reflexive hermeneutics, reception analysis and conceptual history. Original readings of Federalist Paper No. 10 , Plato’s Statesman, de Gouges’s The Three Urns, Rivera’s wall painting The History of Mexico and Strauss’s Persecution and the Art of Writing; with further chapters on Machiavelli, Huang Zongxi and a Hittite loyalty oath. An Epilogue proposing pragmatist eclecticism as the way forward in interpretation. An inspiring, hands- on textbook suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as experienced scholars of political theory, intellectual history and philosophy interested in learning more about types and models of interpretation, and the challenge of combining them in interpretive practice.

Introduction: A Typology of Interpretation in Political Theory 1. From Text to Argument: An Analytical Interpretation of the Federalist Paper No. 10 2. The Person Behind the Author: What Plato’s Life Tells Us about the Statesman 3. What the Author also Authored: Understanding Olympe de Gouge’s The Three Urns through Her Oevre 4. Speaking into the Context: Specifying the Illocutionary Potential of Diego Rivera’s The History of Mexico 5. Subtexting: An Esoteric Interpretation of Leo Strauss’s Persecution and the Art of Writing 6. The Reader in Front of the Text: De-/Recontextualizing Huang Zongxi’s Mingyi daifang lu 7. Reading the Readers:How the Meaning of Machiavelli’s The Prince Changed before Its Publication 8. Tracing the Concept of Contract: Interpreting a Hittite Loyalty Oath for Conceptual History Epilogue: Eclecticism in Political Theory

Martin Beckstein is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His publications include The Politics of Economic Life (Routledge, 2015) and ‘Political Conservation, or How to Prevent Institutional Decay’ (2019). Ralph Weber is Professor of European Global Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He teaches the global