Just arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, for the Association for Political Theory conference at Vanderbilt University.
I was meant to be giving a paper called ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Quentin Skinner’s Real Method’, which explains that the methods Skinner actually uses are richer and more diverse than the ones he outlines in his methodological writings.
But that paper ran into difficulties and I realised I couldn’t do it in time, so I will save it for another day.
Instead I am giving a paper called ‘Extended Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas’, which seeks to explain the idea of meaning and understanding that drives much of our work in politics and philosophy departments, to sit alongside Skinner’s work on the idea of meaning and understanding that drives much work in history departments.