Vision and Exemplarity: Political Thinking Between History and Theory

This article is concerned with the relationship between political theory, history, and methodology. It cautions against a further ‘methodologization’ of political theory. The article argues against what recently has been called the ‘methodological militancy’ within political theory, which on methodological grounds seeks to keep history and theory strictly apart from each other. Instead, the article argues that political thinking ought to combine untimely resources with timely concerns into a distinct political practice entailing both history, theory and politics. Moreover, the article contends that thinking politically from the outset of historical examples has not only been the modus operandi of most classical political thinkers, but that historical examples are particularly well-suited as raw materials for political thinking. Finally, the article argues that vision and imagination – rather than objectivity and detachment – are the defining intellectual capacities of the political thinker.