ABSTRACT
Social and Political Theory is a subject (or should I say two subjects?) upon which centre great, and sometimes acrimonious, disputes. The very word ‘theory’ is an attempt to steer a middle course, and is apt to displease the votaries both of ‘Social and Political Philosophy’ and of ‘Social and Political Science’. If I were made to choose between calling my subject ‘Philosophy’ and calling it ‘Science’ I should unhesitatingly choose ‘Philosophy’; but I am very much happier in being allowed to call it simply ‘Theory’. It is my business as Professor to contemplate the world of social and political affairs and the concepts which belong to that world. I am left free to choose my own way of contemplation-my own method-and I have no predecessors in my office, which is a new one, to tie me down or compel me to any act of defiant reinterpretation of my field of study or of the right and proper way of studying in that field. For that very reason, I am under something of an obligation to explain, if I can, what I am trying to do. Such is the purpose of this lecture-not dogmatism about what anyone else ought to do or to attempt, but explanation, as clear and simple as I can make it, of my own notions of how I can best try to make myself useful.
