Revisiting the Middle Way: The Logic of the History of Ideas after More Than a Decade

Abstract

Mark Bevir’s book stands as one of the most influential recent interventions into debates central to the history of political thought, intellectual history, and textual interpretation more broadly. The introductory essay to this symposium situates Bevir’s position as not only a “middle way” between Straussian and postmodern deconstructive approaches, but one that distinguishes itself from the leading claimants to that terrain, namely the “Cambridge School” most closely associated with Skinner and Pocock. I conclude by briefly characterizing the four subsequent essays, which both engage Bevir’s work through constructive criticism and extend it to issues of contemporary political theory and practice.