ABSTRACT
Our task here is not to answer this final query, what Straussians might call the question of political philosophy, but we mention it at the beginning since it will always be there, in the background, at the end. That is, to call William E. Connolly (or anyone else for that matter) a true innovator in the field of political theory is to suggest that he has made a particularly important contribution to the task inaugurated in its broadest sense by Socrates and Plato – the task of rethinking politics. To make the case for Connolly as someone who has innovated in the field of political theory, then, we must not only demonstrate that his writings offer us a rethinking of politics, but also indicate how that very rethinking proves to be a provocative, fertile, and productive one. This volume therefore illustrates, through its presentation of selected published and unpublished writings by Connolly from as far back as 1969 to as recently as 2007, that taken as a whole and interpreted in light of its impact on the field, Connolly’s project proves profoundly important not just to the field of political theory but to our broader sense of how we understand the political and what we take politics to be and to mean.
