The past quarter of a century has seen dramatic developments in social and political thought. These essays offer an indispensable introduction to some of the most influential amongst them. Quentin Skinner's Introduction traces broad transformations such as the erosion of empiricist assumptions and the undermining of the positivist ideal of the unification of the sciences by the impact of foreign traditions on English-speaking social science. The essays themselves discuss major figures such as Gadamer, Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Althusser and Levi-Strauss, giving valuably lucid introductory studies of some difficult but unquestionably major thinkers of our time. Professor Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474
List of contributors; Preface; 1. Introduction: The Return of Grand Theory Quentin Skinner; 2. Hans-Georg Gadamer William Outhwaite; 3. Jacques Derrida David Hoy; 4. Michel Foucault Mark Philp; 5. Thomas Kuhn Barry Barnes; 6. John Rawls Alan Ryan; 7. Jurgen Habermas Anthony Giddens; 8. Louis Althusser Susan James; 9. Claude Levi-Strauss James Boon; 10. The Annales historians Stuart Clark; Bibliography; Index of names.
