On the Method of “Historical Philosophizing” in the Political Thought of Bernard Williams

Abstract

The article concentrates on the role of the historical aspect in the political thought of Bernard Williams. Greatly influenced by ancient philosophy and its history, his works reached the main issues of theoretical ethics and political philosophy, and searching for the comprehensive methodological point, via Nietzsche’s genealogy returned to the historical subject in a new capacity. The article considers the historical and methodological convictions of Williams, which become available for understanding through the analysis of the concepts of “making sense”, as well as the “first political question”, the “basic legitimation demand”, political realism and political moralism approaches. The study also includes a comparative perspective and points out the range of unsolved political philosophy issues raised by Williams’s historical understanding argument.