Bulletin n. 1/2009
July 2009
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Godrej Farah
    Towards a Cosmopolitan Political Thought: The Hermeneutics of Interpreting the Other
    in Polity , Volume 41, Issue 2, April ,  2009 ,  135-165
    The emergence of the field of comparative political theory suggests that the encounter with non-Western texts be considered a legitimate and necessary part of political theory, so that the field is reconstituted in a truly cosmopolitan manner. However, this also presents unique challenges to political theorists. Chief among these is the question of what hermeneutic approach would allow us to understand well the ideas contained in these texts. This essay will argue for a particular approach to the interpretation of non-Western texts and ideas, providing an account of a methodologically self-conscious approach to comparative political theory. A serious comparative political theorist will inevitably have to alternate between an internal immersion in the lived experience of the text, and an external stance of commentary and exegesis of the text. Struggling with the conflicting imperatives of these moments is precisely the task of a more nuanced approach to comparative political theory. Ultimately, however, I also argue that this particular approach has implications for the development of a genuine cosmopolitanism in the field of political theory. A cosmopolitan political theory is precisely one in which such struggles and complex encounters with the otherness of texts are increasingly made available to provoke, dislocate, and challenge our own understandings of political life. The method I offer is thus deeply implicated in the evolution of our self-understanding as political theorists.
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