THEORETICAL ORIGINS OF THE CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

Abstract

The theoretical prerequisites for the emergence of the Cambridge school of political thought are considered. The specific features of research into the history of political thought during the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are traced, problematic points and shortcomings are highlighted. The reasons for the imperfection of the approach to the study of the history of political thought, which was developed by jurists of the 19th century, were analyzed, in addition, the problem of the impact of the ideological commitment of researchers on the objective understanding of the history of the development of political thought was highlighted. It is shown that the Cambridge school of political thought was focused on the development of a new methodology for researching the history of political thought. It is argued that the formation of the Cambridge school of political thought was influenced by the British analytical philosophy of language. Seen as an attempt to turn the history of political thought into a more reasoned and precise discipline with the help of the approaches used by the analytical philosophy of language. The influence of quite innovative works of British historians Peter Laslett and Robin Collingwood on representatives of the Cambridge school of political thought is analyzed. It is shown that the main idea of the methodology of the Cambridge school of political thought - the study of the historical context of ideas was formed under the influence of the works of Robin Collingwood.

Keywords

• cambridge school of political thought
• history of political thought
• methodology
• contextualism
• analytical philosophy of language
• history of ideas