ABSTRACT

William E. Connolly is the most interesting and original North American political theorist of his generation. His thought stands apart from mainstream political theories of justice, right and liberty, yet is not defined by simplistic opposition to them. He has creatively employed many elements of twentiethcentury continental European philosophy while remaining an identifiably American theorist. He has incorporated into his thinking insights and ideas gleaned from diverse sources – including biological science, cinema and theology – but has always maintained a clear, direct and committed focus upon contemporary political situations and the problems and possibilities to which they give rise. He shares in the political sentiments and convictions of the ‘left’ but has not sought to earn radical credentials simply by adhering to easily identifiable dogmas. At the forefront of political theory that is responsive to ‘identity politics’, he has remained a grounded and trenchant critic of economic inequalities, showing the deep and significant imbrication of both with affective and spiritual dispositions that cannot be understood if classed only as secondary epi-phenomena. Finally – and perhaps above all – while developing a political theory concerned with the cultivation of an ethos of ‘presumptive generosity’, ‘critical responsiveness’ and ‘agonistic respect’, Connolly has also enacted this ethos in the openness his work shows to other streams of thought and in the manner with which he engages interlocutors. This book contains a variety of essays that celebrate this combination of

theoretical creativity, political commitment and intellectual generosity. They explore, examine, apply and criticise Connolly’s work, always striving to open up rather than close down his thinking. This Introduction offers a more general perspective. In addition to reviewing these chapters, it puts Connolly’s work into an intellectual but also – and especially – a political context. It also stresses the extent to which that work is part of an American tradition. This is not done in order to confine, label or file away that work. Rather, in appreciating this specificity of Connolly’s work, one can also see its eminently practical nature and can then begin thinking how best to adapt it to the tasks at hand in other places and at other times. Connolly does not just instruct

readers on what he thinks political theory or politics must be. Rather, he offers tools, resources and suggestions with which we can think and act politically. These have to be employed in different ways in different contexts and those of Connolly’s readers who go along with him must be prepared to devise their own mobile and adaptable strategies in their part of the ongoing struggle always to be more than we are – to become plural.