Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T13:02:35.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

C.B. Macpherson and Philosophy, “Crypto” or Otherwise: A Response to Frank Cunningham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Phillip Hansen*
Affiliation:
University of Regina
*
Professor Emeritus Department of Philosophy and Classics University of Regina3737 Wascana Parkway Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada Email: Phillip.Hansen@uregina.ca

Extract

I have a high regard for Frank Cunningham and his work, on socialism, on democratic theory—and on C.B. Macpherson. To take one example, his new introductions to the recent reissues of Macpherson's books from Oxford University Press, including The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism and Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval, are excellent. Lucid and informative, they highlight the value Macpherson's ideas hold for contemporary political thought. So I am grateful that he has offered so fulsome a critical response to my book—even though he finds my approach, based on the idea that there is a suppressed philosophical dimension in Macpherson's work, though (dubiously) audacious, to be of limited accuracy or usefulness—indeed ultimately misguided. It results, he claims, in an analysis that “detracts from Macpherson's political-theoretical and political strengths.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carmichael, D.J.C. 1983. “C.B. Macpherson's ‘Hobbes’: A Critique.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 16 (1) 6180.Google Scholar
Horkheimer, Max. 1995. “Materialism and Morality.” In Between Philosophy and Social Science: Selected Early Writings, trans. Hunter, Frederick., Kramer, Matthew S. and Torpey, John. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C.B. 1983. “Leviathan Restored: A Reply to Carmichael.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 16 (4): 795805.Google Scholar