Between Eternities On the Tradition of Political Philosophy [Paperback]

Gregory Smith's long engagement with postmodern thought has borne fruit in this monumental study of our philosophical and political present. In Between Eternities, Smith covers a myriad of topics, from Socratic dialectics to theoretical physics and international relations. His thesis, convincingly argued, is that political philosophy remains the architectonic sciencefor us no less than for Aristotlebecause it alone can fashion a whole of ethics, politics, psychology, ontology, and epistemology. Smith's style is graceful and his point of view sharp-edged and confident.Between Eternities deals with the future of the tradition of political philosophy. The author argues that this tradition can only progress after the postmodernist fragmentation of political philosophy has been realized as part of the grander scheme of the history of Western thought.Between Eternities reflects on the possibility of political philosophy as an ongoing, architectonic activity that is necessarily linked to both the past and future. Almost all contemporary work in political philosophy either studies the subject with an eye to past traditionchoosing a winner from that tradition and then deducing what follows from the posited premises in a thoroughly modern, constructivist fashionor else limits itself to drawing out what follows from already accepted premises and principles. There is almost no effort to reflect upon the prerequisites for the tradition being an ongoing undertaking that can have a unique future. Between Eternities attempts to set loose that thinking toward the future.Chapter 1 Introduction: Political Philosophy; Is There a Future Tradition? Part 2 Modern Constructivism or Phenomenology Chapter 3 Preface: Modernity and Its Closure Chapter 4 The End of History or a Portal to the Future Chapter 5 What is Political Philosophy: A Phenomenological Approach Chapter 6 Cacophony of Silence: Derrida's Deconstructionism and the Possibility of Political Philosophy Chapter 7 Machiavellild