Between specters of war and visions of peace: dialogic political theory and the challenges of politics

Examining how ideas of war and peace have functioned as frames of reference within the history of political theory, this book features five thematically focused chapters that pair (in order) Schmitt and Derrida, Aquinas and Machiavelli, Hobbes and Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche, and Thucydides and Plato. The book's substantive argument is that attempts to establish either war or peace as dominant intellectual perspectives obscure too much of political life. The book argues for a style of political theory committed more to questioning than to closure. It challenges two powerful currents in contemporary political philosophy: the verdict that premodern or metaphysical texts cannot speak to modern and postmodern societies, and the insistence that all forms of political theory be some form of democratic theory.

This book examines how ideas of war and peace have organized frames of reference within the history of political theory. It argues for a political philosophy that takes both conditions seriously and for a style of political theory committed to questioning rather than closure.

Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: Enmity or Friendship? -- Chapter 2: War and Order -- Chapter 3: Perpetual Peace -- Chapter 4: War is History -- Chapter 5: Political Philosophy Between War and Peace -- Notes -- References -- Index.