chapter 12
...................................................................................................................................................THE HISTORY OF
POLITICAL
THOUGHT AS
DISCIPLINARY
GENRE
...................................................................................................................................................james farr
The history of political thought refers, ambiguously, either to the actual
chronology of past thought about politics, or to the narration and critical
commentary on past thought. This parallels a similar ambiguity when refer-
ring to the history of science (Laudan 1977 ). Unlike the history of science,
however, the ambiguity attending the history of political thought (in the
second sense, which shall govern our usage) is deepened by the fact that
past political thinkers engaged in narration and critical commentary on the
political thought that preceded them. Whereas past scientists were not his-
torians of science, at least beyond recent precedents, past political thinkers
were historians of political thought whose reach extended to the thinkers of
antiquity. This is a reminder how entangled political thought is in its own