Journal article
2013

The Mythologies of Contextualism: Method and Judgment in Skinner’s Visions of Politics

Michelle T. Clarke

Political Studies 61, no. 4 (2013): 767–783.

Argues that Quentin Skinner’s contextualism does not deliver the interpretive method it promises. Skinner traces the ‘mythologies’ of textualist reading to its reliance on the interpreter’s judgment and presents contextualism as a discipline that minimizes judgment, yet judgment remains indispensable to his own practice. His added assumption that philosophers write chiefly for strategic, ideological ends produces a mythology of its own, casting philosophical authors as ideologues, though his insistence on recovering an author’s own perspective remains valuable.

  • Method
  • Contextualism
  • Quentin Skinner
  • Cambridge School
  • Interpretation
  • Ideology

How to cite

Clarke, Michelle T. “The Mythologies of Contextualism: Method and Judgment in Skinner’s Visions of Politics.” Political Studies 61, no. 4 (2013): 767–783. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.01000.x.

@article{clarke2013mythologies,
  author    = {Clarke, Michelle T.},
  title     = {{The Mythologies of Contextualism: Method and Judgment in Skinner's \emph{Visions of Politics}}},
  year      = {2013},
  journal   = {Political Studies},
  volume    = {61},
  number    = {4},
  pages     = {767--783},
  doi       = {10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.01000.x},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.01000.x}
}