ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an conceptual level to divorce “anarchism” from “anarchists” and “anarchy.” The points made in this section about factual anteriority and logical priority may appear obvious and unworthy of protracted analysis. Nevertheless, the anarchist-ist conception of anarchism remains prevalent—if difficult for serious scholars of anarchism to maintain consistently. Anarchism, then, is often thought of as the belief in the desirability of anarchy, where “anarchy” consists in the alternative negation and/or realization of specific social norms, practices, relations, institutions, and structures. Two prominent dispositions—quite at odds with anarchist skepticism—stand out in the history of liberal thought about domination, authority, and the state. One of these is resolutely non-skeptical—indeed dogmatic. The arguably pseudo-skeptical element in liberal thought is represented by the contractarian tradition.
