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The question of hermeneutics in politics covers four important and interrelated lines. The first has to do with the question of the relations between power (on the side of politics) and force (on the side of nature): should we cash out this distinction in terms of the distinction of meaning and objectivity and what are the consequences? The second has to do with the question of pluralism and cohesion in politics: if politics is determined as a realm of meaning (and not of truth), should we say that this offers resources to evade polarisation and ground pluralism and toleration? The third has to do with the question of political agency: is the political art something like an art of reading and writing, and if so, what are the implications? Finally, it has to do with the relations between morality and politics: if politics is best defined as a field of interpretations, does it make it independent from (some forms of) moral systems? The course will address some of the foundational moments and debates around these questions from throughout the history of philosophy.

This course is meant to be of interest to historians of any period of political thought. You will gain insight on the history of the role of discourse (both linguistic and non-linguistic) in politics, with emphasis on its relations with the question of force, and the role of truth and moral truth in the constitution of the political imaginary.