Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought (review)

Quentin Skinner is certainly the most influential and widely respected English-language historian of early European political thought of the last generation, properly regarded as one of the founding figures (along with John Dunn and J. G. A. Pocock) of the so-called "Cambridge School" of interpretation. From his early methodological essays of the 1960s and early 1970s to his panoramic Foundations of Modern Political Thought of 1978 and his more recent work on Hobbes and on the concept of liberty, Skinner fundamentally changed the way in which we conceive the emergence of political ideas and ideologies from the later Middle Ages to the seventeenth century. This volume of collected essays, composed mainly by Skinner's colleagues and former students, is a testament to the range of his intellectual interests and contributions. Derived from a 2003 conference in Cambridge honoring Skinner on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the Foundations, the book should not be regarded as a Festschrift so much as a multifaceted extension of the primary themes that have animated him during the past forty or more years.

Not surprisingly, the coverage contained in Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought is wide-ranging. Several of the early chapters treat the precursors (a term that Skinner himself might well reject on methodological grounds) of and contexts for Skinner's scholarship to be found among historians as well as linguistic and analytical philosophers of the twentieth century. Mark Goldie, Holly Hamilton-Bleakley, and Warren Boutcher set the table for our appreciation of the intellectual framework within which (and against which) Skinner developed his novel framework of interpretation. Pocock offers a somewhat embarrassingly self-referential (in my view) account of Skinner's contributions in relation to his own work.

The rest of the chapters address some of the important thinkers —as well as the lesser figures —who have been the object of Skinner's concerns. Renaissance humanism and late scholasticism play leading roles, as befits Skinner's intellectual foci. I particularly commend the chapters by Marco Geuna, who examines the significance of the historical continuity of rhetorical culture throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance for Skinner's own theory of liberty, and by Martin van Gelderen, who highlights the claim (championed by Skinner) that the development of doctrines of popular resistance in early modern Europe should not be reduced to a single, essentially Calvinist, source. Harro Höpfl presents a useful appraisal of the issues posed by the rise and persistence of scholasticism as a feature of European political thought, suggesting that a more thorough account of this topic would help to complete Skinner's investigations. Annabel Brett's chapter parallels and supplements Höpfl's contribution in this regard.

The volume is rounded out by three chapters on dimensions of Hobbes's political theory, which has occupied much of Skinner's research in the years following publication of the Foundations. Richard Tuck and Kinch Hoekstra offer complementary chapters on Hobbes and democracy, while David Armitage considers the importance of the Hobbesian contribution to modern international thought.

In a closing chapter, Skinner himself provides a gracious and self-reflective response to the preceding essays and also a rethinking of his own intentions in writing the Foundations. I was particularly struck by his frank admission that the supposedly guiding theme of the original book —to grasp the emergence of the political theory of the state in Europe —may have been problematic. Skinner goes so far as to accuse himself of "parochialism" (237). Seldom does one encounter a scholar of Skinner's standing who so honestly and openly revisits his magnum opus with such a critical eye.

The only caveat that I might offer concerning this excellent collection of essays is the absence of the voices of Skinner's serious critics. Despite his undeniable importance, many scholars have registered considerable reservations about his methodological...