Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought is a work of political theory by Princeton Emeritus Professor Sheldon S. Wolin. Part One, consisting of ten chapters and first published in 1960, distinguishes political philosophy from philosophy in general and traces political philosophy from its Platonic origins to modern day. Part Two, consisting of seven chapters and published (along with Part One) in a 2004 expanded edition, traces the development of political thought from Marx, Nietzsche, and others up to the late 20th century. Wolin left Part One unaltered in the expanded edition, confining the expressions of his changes in thought about political theory to those sections of Part Two that overlap with Part One.
One sign of the significance of the work is the large number of graduate students and professors who for three decades used it as a primary source of guidance in the field of political theory.
In revising the work, Wolin cites three major changes in political theory and politics between 1960 and 2004: (1) the aftermath of Fascism's fall in Europe and Communism's fall generally, with an intervening constant "semi-mobilization" by liberal democracies, (2) an increase in the rights of citizens against the tendencies of regimentation by the state (e.g. anti-discrimination laws), and (3) an increase in the ability of nations to "control, punish, survey, direct, and influence citizens." Wolin states that the first change necessitated the latter two changes, leading to an "inverted totalitarianism" where increased rights exist alongside a less participatory citizenry under more pervasive governmental control.
Wolin states that an inquiry is a process, a tool to find truths. Philosophy is distinguished from other forms of inquiry in that "philosophy claims to deal with truths publicly arrived at and publicly demonstrable." Contrasted with this are revealed truths dealing with sacred rites, religion, and private findings of conscience or feelings. Political philosophy hews close to this characteristic of philosophy as a whole, with the public ("demos") at times in history demanding that laws be publicly demonstrated and accessible, even if their origin was supposedly revealed truth. For Wolin, it is the nature of politics that common concerns are brought before the political process, because the political is best equipped both to confront those concerns and to do so in a public, demonstrable, and thus philosophical manner.
The discernment of what within philosophy exactly is political and what is not is confused by two factors: (1) the line can be blurred due to the interaction of political factors with other influences and (2) the language used to describe political ideas is often used in other contexts, and vocabulary from other areas is often applied to the political.
Famous quotes containing the words politics, continuity, innovation, western, political and/or thought:
“The will to change begins in the body not in the mind
My politics is in my body, accruing and expanding with every act of resistance and each of my failures.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Only the family, society’s smallest unit, can change and yet maintain enough continuity to rear children who will not be “strangers in a strange land,” who will be rooted firmly enough to grow and adapt.”
—Salvador Minuchin (20th century)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)
“trying to live in the terrible western world
here where to love at all’s to be a politician, as to love a poem
is pretentious,”
—Frank O’Hara (1926–1966)
“If all political power be derived only from Adam, and be to descend only to his successive heirs, by the ordinance of God and divine institution, this is a right antecedent and paramount to all government; and therefore the positive laws of men cannot determine that, which is itself the foundation of all law and government, and is to receive its rule only from the law of God and nature.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“How can one explain all the time and thought that goes into raising a child, all the opportunities for mistakes, all the chances to recover and try again? How does one break the news that nothing permanent can be formed in an instant—children are not weaned, potty trained, taught manners, introduced to civilization in one or two tries—as everyone imagined.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)