Repository | Book | Chapter
From Hobbes to Oppenheim
conceptual reconstruction as political engagement
pp. 20-38
Abstract
In my study are two large file cabinets. One of them holds copies of correspondence accumulated over thirty-odd years. Among the thickest file folders is one labelled "Felix O." From time to time I clean out this file cabinet, filled with the flotsam and jetsam of years past. But the Felix file has survived all the annual purges, and for good reason. I reread its contents every year or so, and always with appreciation and profit. For it is full to overflowing with carefully typed letters gently chiding and correcting me for my attempts to analyse "power" and other political concepts from an "ordinary language" perspective, for relying too readily on claims about the "essential contestability" of political concepts, and various other errors of my youth. Those letters also thank me – more generously than justly, I now think – for my critical comments on his work.
Publication details
Published in:
Carter Ian, Ricciardi Mario (2001) Freedom, power and political morality: essays for Felix Oppenheim. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Pages: 20-38
Full citation:
Ball Terence (2001) „From Hobbes to Oppenheim: conceptual reconstruction as political engagement“, In: I. Carter & M. Ricciardi (eds.), Freedom, power and political morality, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 20–38.