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Janusansiktet i Chicago

Rossheim, Marcus LU (2024) STVM25 20241
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the political theorists Charles Merriam and Leo Strauss understood the relation between past, present and future. In contrast to dominating narratives about ideology, behaviorism and anachronism, this thesis presents a new understanding of how Merriam and Strauss made sense of temporality.
My main argument is that they did so, not by looking away from the need of historical contextualism, but from understanding such epistemology, their research contained two temporalities. They both viewed history as Janus-faced: Present political inquiry made sense in the mirror of past intellectual traditions, and in turn, the mirror made it possible to be reflexive of present problems. This, however, is... (More)
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the political theorists Charles Merriam and Leo Strauss understood the relation between past, present and future. In contrast to dominating narratives about ideology, behaviorism and anachronism, this thesis presents a new understanding of how Merriam and Strauss made sense of temporality.
My main argument is that they did so, not by looking away from the need of historical contextualism, but from understanding such epistemology, their research contained two temporalities. They both viewed history as Janus-faced: Present political inquiry made sense in the mirror of past intellectual traditions, and in turn, the mirror made it possible to be reflexive of present problems. This, however, is not to say that their interpretations where identical – only that history had a reflexive and intersubjective function in their understanding of the present.
Drawing on heuristic method of Reinhart Koselleck and empirically focused on Merriams and Strauss comprehension of the American constitution, I develop a new understanding of "presentism" and "classicism" as two historiographical approaches in political theory. Following Strauss classicist remarks on the “true legitimacy” of constitutionalism and Merriams presentist expectations of "democratic progress”, I suggests that temporal pluralism – beyond debates over behaviorism and anachronism – is essential to understand how modern political thought became Janus-faced. (Less)
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author
Rossheim, Marcus LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Merriam, Strauss och historicismens kris inom politisk teori
course
STVM25 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Charles Merriam, Leo Strauss, political theory, historicism, presentism, classicism
language
Swedish
id
9152921
date added to LUP
2024-07-18 14:02:21
date last changed
2024-07-18 14:02:21
@misc{9152921,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the political theorists Charles Merriam and Leo Strauss understood the relation between past, present and future. In contrast to dominating narratives about ideology, behaviorism and anachronism, this thesis presents a new understanding of how Merriam and Strauss made sense of temporality.
 	My main argument is that they did so, not by looking away from the need of historical contextualism, but from understanding such epistemology, their research contained two temporalities. They both viewed history as Janus-faced: Present political inquiry made sense in the mirror of past intellectual traditions, and in turn, the mirror made it possible to be reflexive of present problems. This, however, is not to say that their interpretations where identical – only that history had a reflexive and intersubjective function in their understanding of the present.
	Drawing on heuristic method of Reinhart Koselleck and empirically focused on Merriams and Strauss comprehension of the American constitution, I develop a new understanding of "presentism" and "classicism" as two historiographical approaches in political theory. Following Strauss classicist remarks on the “true legitimacy” of constitutionalism and Merriams presentist expectations of "democratic progress”, I suggests that temporal pluralism – beyond debates over behaviorism and anachronism – is essential to understand how modern political thought became Janus-faced.}},
  author       = {{Rossheim, Marcus}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Janusansiktet i Chicago}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}