Quentin Skinner is een vooraanstaand historicus van het politiek denken, wiens werk zich verdiept in het moderne staatsconcept. Hij wordt erkend als een sleutelfiguur van de invloedrijke 'Cambridge School', bekend om zijn focus op de 'talen' van politiek discours. Zijn belangrijke wetenschappelijke werk onderzoekt de evolutie van de staat van de Renaissance tot de Reformatie, waarbij de nadruk ligt op de historische contexten en linguïstische kaders die politieke ideeën vormden. Skinner's benadering belicht hoe de betekenissen van politieke concepten in de loop van de tijd zijn geconstrueerd en getransformeerd.
The third of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world's
leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most
important work on the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, each of which has
been carefully revised for publication in this form.
This collection of essays traces the relationship between families and states in the major countries of Western Europe since 1945, examining the power of states to shape family life and the capacity of families to influence states. Written by an exceptionally distinguished team of scholars, Families and States in Western Europe follows many narratives, allowing comparisons to be drawn between different countries. The essays point to numerous convergences, illustrating how states have coped with common problems arising at the level of family life, and exploring issues such as secularism, the pressure of multiculturalist demands and the growing rejection of welfare state principles. Families and States in Western Europe will be of interest to anyone analysing relations between civil society and the modern democratic state, and the place of the family within this relationship. This collection makes a significant contribution to current political theory and to our understanding of European family life in its many different forms.
The second of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world's
leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most
important work on the political thought of the Italian renaissance, each of
which has been carefully revised for publication in this form.
This major work from Quentin Skinner presents a fundamental reappraisal of the political theory of Hobbes. Using, for the first time, the full range of manuscript as well as printed sources, it documents an entirely new view of Hobbes' intellectual development, and reexamines the shift from a humanist to a scientific culture in European moral and political thought. By examining Hobbes' philosophy against the background of his humanist education, Professor Skinner rescues this most difficult and challenging of political philosophers from the intellectual isolation in which he is so often discussed.
This extended essay by one of the world's leading historians seeks, in its
first part, to excavate and to vindicate, the neo-Roman theory of free
citizens and free states as it developed in early modern Britain.
This extended essay by one of the world's leading historians seeks, in its first part, to excavate and vindicate the neo-Roman theory of free citizens and free states as it developed in early modern Britain. This analysis leads to a powerful defense of the nature, purposes and goals of intellectual history and the history of ideas. In this concise yet powerful account, derived from his inaugural lecture as Regius Professor at Cambridge, Quentin Skinner provides one of the most substantial statements yet made about the importance, relevance and excitement of this form of historical enquiry.
The past quarter of a century has seen dramatic developments in social and political thought. These essays offer an indispensable introduction to some of the most influential amongst them. Quentin Skinner's Introduction traces broad transformations such as the erosion of empiricist assumptions and the undermining of the positivist ideal of the unification of the sciences by the impact of foreign traditions on English-speaking social science. The essays themselves discuss major figures such as Gadamer, Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Althusser and Levi-Strauss, giving valuably lucid introductory studies of some difficult but unquestionably major thinkers of our time. Professor Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at
Quentin Skinner focuses on three major works, The Prince, the Discourses, and The History of Florence, and distils from them an introduction to Machiavelli's doctrines of exemplary clarity.