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How to use this textbook
Beyond the philosophical reflections that are the main content of this book, the
hints at world history and world politics, the stuff from which my political philoso-
phy is drawn, require enough space in and of themselves so that any additional con-
tent would overburden the volume and make it thicker in pages than I wanted. This
is why the reader will not find here what can be easily retrieved on the Internet,
from the description of events (such as battles, peace treaties, revolutions and par-
liamentary votes) to the biographies of notable protagonists (only the year of birth
and death is indicated for a preliminary orientation; living persons’ names carry no
xiv Preface
such indication). This notwithstanding, to put some flesh around conceptual defini-
tions, I have sometimes cited historical or economic or sociological facts that may
not be immediately present to the mind of non-European readers.
The References at the end of each chapter contain the sources of the texts
quoted in that chapter, which are kept at a minimum. Additionally, each chapter, as
well this introductory note, is complemented with the indication of Further read-
ings, in case the reader wants to learn more about certain topics. For ease of access,
whenever possible, the e-version of books and articles is cited instead of the hard
copy. Wherever it is important to know the year of composition or first publication
of a book, this year is quoted, while the publication year of the edition actually used
comes at the end of the entry.
Titles are quoted in their original language, followed by the English translation
(italicised if corresponding to a published edition). Only on two or three occasions
was it necessary to refer to a work lacking an English translation. I have introduced
concepts based on ancient Greek and Latin using these languages, as well as in spo-
radic cases Arabic, Chinese and Russian words.
There is, in my view, a twin rationale for doing so. First, the triumph of English
as lingua franca, a blessing for international understanding and scientific communica-
tion, should not lead to erasing the use of all other languages. It is as curious as it
is lamentable that the love for diversity, celebrated with some pomp everywhere in
Western societies, must stop at the language barrier, beyond which all is homog-
enised in English as if Babel had never existed or were still a divine punishment
to be finally remedied. The other reason is that giving up all linguistic multiplicity
and all erudition with the alleged aim of making a book or a discipline accessible
to everybody makes them intellectually poorer, while a less standardised linguistic
sensitivity remains open only to students of the very best and exclusive universities
around the world. In some measure, it would amount to a hidden contribution to
even more inequality.
In any case, the tiny opening made to linguistic diversity in this book is a signal and
an offer to those who accept this stimulation, and an act of respect towards readers
of mother tongues other than English. But do not make any mistake: the book can
be fully read and completely understood in English only.
Conventional wisdom holds that political philosophy, as a purely conceptual
exercise, is foreign to visual elements. In the case of a textbook, this is not necessarily
true, but my wish to use images to complement the conceptual communication of
the book’s contents has been to a large extent frustrated by complicated copyright
concerns. The reader will thus find only a few illustrations printed in this volume; for
the remaining chapters I have sometimes indicated web links leading to the images
I intended to show. The reader will choose whether or not to make use of them.
* * *
My MOOC (massive open online course) Political Philosophy: An Introduction,
recorded in the Palagio di Parte Guelfa in Florence in 2013–14, is still available
Preface xv
(2016) on the platform, Berlin. It follows to a good extent the same
road map as this textbook, but does not overlap with it.
Inspiration for this approach to political philosophy, which has been influencing
my teaching for the past twenty-five years, came originally from the articles written
in the 1970s by Norberto Bobbio for the Enciclopedia Einaudi and later translated by
Peter Kennealy into English. In 1989, they were published by Polity Press, Oxford
under the infelicitous, then fashionable title Democracy and Dictatorship: The Nature
and Limits of State Power; in it the subtitle is the true title, better corresponding to
the original Stato, governo, società. I still recommend this book as a whole and will
quote from it (Bobbio 1989) in the Further Readings.
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