theorist is engaged, or whether they are incidental or accidental to it. If the
former, the theorist is claiming to make historical statements validated in
either the same ways as those the historian practices, or in other ways which
must be deWned and defended. If the latter—and this the historianWnds
easier to imagine—the distinction between ‘‘political theory’’ and ‘‘political
thought’’ has begun to disappear: that is, the former has begun to coexist with
other modes of political discourse, and we are re-entering the historical world
in which discourses interact, modifying, changing, confusing, and distorting
one another. There are historians who study and narrate what goes on in this
world; it is possible that there may be a ‘‘political theory’’ which addresses the
same phenomena.
References
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