An Approach to Reading McKeon: History, Philosophy, Law

ABSTRACT Richard McKeon was a unique and brilliant thinker. But he was also a difficult writer, which has made it hard for readers to acquaint themselves with his system of thought. This article details the author’s close reading of a single essay by McKeon. By reconstructing its argument, the author intends to indicate something of the nature of McKeon’s larger philosophical project. The essay, titled “The Individual in Law and in Legal Philosophy in the West,” was published in 1968. It presents a history of Western political thought from ancient Greece to the twentieth century. If it were simply a work of historical scholarship, this essay would still be an important document, ranking alongside other more famous grand narratives of Western political thought written in the twentieth century. But this essay also offers a useful window into McKeon’s larger project to reorient philosophy and reorder the human quest for knowledge.