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Philosophical History: W. H. Greenleaf and the Study of the History of Political Thought

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Abstract

I now wish to turn to the suggestions for studying the history of political thought offered by W. H. Greenleaf, but subscribed to in varying degrees of explicitness by a number of other historians and philosophers. W. H. Greenleaf has been widely acknowledged as a significant contributor to the gradual development of a more historically sensitive attitude to the study of political thought. Pocock and Skinner, for example, while disagreeing with some of Greenleaf’s ideas, pay tribute to his efforts to change the character of the discipline.1 J. G. Gunnell has asserted that much of what Skinner has to say about history echoes what Greenleaf had said as early as 1964.2 However, when Greenleaf is mentioned in methodological discussions he is given very little consideration. I know of only one article that devotes more than a few sentences to his prescriptions for the study of the history of political thought, and even that article draws only upon Greenlea’s Order, Empiricism and Politics and neglects his subsequent theoretical development.3 One reason why Greenleaf’s methodological theories have never attracted the attention they deserve is because their author tends to present them in connexion with other intellectual pursuits. Therefore, the theory comes in fragments and nowhere appears in a comprehensive form. Thus, one of the aims of this chapter will be to construct a detailed account of the theory from Greenleaf’s scattered statements, and to relate it to the sources of its inspiration. Greenleaf, in this study, represents the first stage in the move away from traditional assumptions about, and ways of studying the history of political thought. However, he also represents a step back in time. Through British idealism he looks to Hegel for guidance in organizing the subject matter into a coherent whole. Hegel presents past philosophy as a system in development, and Greenleaf selectively appropriates some of Hegel’s ideas and develops Oakeshott’s brief remarks on the composition and organization of past philosophy.

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Notes

  1. J. G. A. Pocock,’“The Onely Politician”: Machiavelli, Harrington and Felix Raab’, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, 12 (1966). 267; J. G. A. Pocock, Politics, language and Time (London, Methuen, 1972), 10; Q Skinner, ‘On Two Traditions of English Political Thought’, Historical Journal. 9 (1966). Passim;, Q. Skinner. ‘Some Problems in the Analysis of Political Thought and Action’. Political Theory. 2 (1974), 282 and 288.

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  11. When asked about his view on British entry into the European Economic Community Oakeshott is reported to have replied, ‘I do not find it necessary to hold opinions on such matters’. Quoted by Joanna Mack, ‘The L. S. E., A Monument to Fabian Socialism?’ New Society, 15 June, 1978, p.589. Cf. ‘I can understand someone giving up his soul to gain the whole world of academe: but to influence Mr. Crossman or his ilk… What sort of ambition is that?’ W. H. Greenleaf. review of Bernard Crick. Political Theory and Practice in Political Studies. XXI (1973), 225. Greenlcaf also suggests that even if there are practical lessons to be drawn from his work he docs ‘not want to stress them or draw them out as it is in… (his] view academically irrelevant, not to say pernicious, for a university teacher in his professional capacity primarily to conoern himself with such things’. W. H. Greenleaf. ‘The Character of Modern British Politics’. Parliamentary Affairs, XXVIII (1975), 368. Cf. Greenleaf’s earlier concern to ‘preserve the peaoe of the world and to prevent the resurgence of another Hitler’. W. H. Greenleaf. ‘Imperialism and Geopolitics’. World Affairs (N. S-). I (1947), 188.

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  13. Greenleaf makes this criticism in two places, Oakeshott’s Philosophical Politics, 95; ‘Idealism, Modern Philosophy and Politics’, 109.

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  27. Quoted in C. H. Mcllwain. ‘The Historian’s Part in a Changing World’, The American Historical Review. XLII (1937). 212. Greenleaf quotes part of this phrase in Order, Empiricism and Politics, 4.

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  28. Greenleaf. ‘Theory and the Study of Politics’, 470; W. H. Grecnleaf. ‘How Should a History of Political Thought be Organized?’ (unpublished paper. 1969), 2. This view is quite common. See. for example. H. Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (Harmondsworth, Penguin. 1973). 16 and 96; G. R. Elton, The Practice of History (London, Collins-Fontana. 1976). 86; Oakeshott, ‘History and the Social Sciences’, 77.

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  30. See. for example. Greenleaf. ‘Theory and the Study of Polities’, 468.]

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  37. Ibid., 307.

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  41. Greenleaf. ‘Theory and the Study of Polities’, 470–471; Oakeshott, Experience and Its Modes. 143.

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  43. Oakeshott. On History, 90.

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  44. Oakeshott, On Human Conduct, 105.

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  45. See, for example, Greenleaf, ‘The World of Polities’, 8. Here he makes reference to M. Oakeshott, ‘The Idea of “Character” in the Interpretation of Modern Politics’ (unpublished, presented at a P. S. A. meeting, 1954 ).

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  46. Greenleaf, ‘The World of Politics’, 7.

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  47. W. H. Greenleaf . The British Political Tradition, vol. I, The Rite of Collectivism (London, Methuen, 1983), 11. Cf. ‘The problem of characterization is thus one of making a feasible unity out of a range of varying tendencies and to do so without ignoring any ambivalences, differences, or alterations that the evidence to hand may suggest’. Ibid, 9. Also see Greenleaf. ‘The Character of Modern British Politics’, 374 and W. H. Grcenleaf. ‘Laski and British Socialism’. History of Political Thought, II (1981), 575.

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  48. W. H. Greenleaf, ‘The Character of Modern British Conservatism’ in Knowledge and Belief in Politics eds. R Benewick, R. N. Berki and B. C. Parekh (London. Allen and Unwin. 1973), 177–212. ‘We must accept and somehow embody in our characterization the fact of diversity and contrast, the recognition that an ideology is not a single thing at all but a range of ideas and reactions. And this scope can only be identified by indicating the extremes of which it is capable, by describing the “cardinal antitheses” of this political disposition as revealed in modem Britain’. Ibid, 179. Also see W. H. Greenleaf. The British Political Tradition, vol. II. The ideological Heritage ( London. Mcthuen. 1983 ), 189–346.

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  89. I have in mind two reviews which demonstrate this interest, Greenleaf. review of Milne, The Social Philosophy of English Idealism. 323–324; Greenleaf. ‘Approaches to Freedom’.

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Boucher, D. (1985). Philosophical History: W. H. Greenleaf and the Study of the History of Political Thought. In: Texts in Context. Martinus Nijhoff Philosophy Library, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5075-7_4

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