Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book contains selections from nine authors, arranged in chronological sequence from Alberico Gentili, writing in 1598, to Heinrich von Treitschke, lecturing in Berlin at the end of the nineteenth century. All are concerned with the nature of international politics. It is significant that Gentz's essay on the balance of power has not appeared in English since 1806, while Rousseau's writings on international politics have never been fully translated at all. By philosophical reflection is meant the identification and clarification of the universal features, or concepts, implicit in experience. Experience for the philosopher is not a set of separate 'facts' to be weighed and measured in order to reveal regularities or laws. The philosopher's task is to re-think experience, and to elicit the basic, universal assumptions which are contained within it.