John Macmurray

Scottish philosopher John Macmurray's intriguing career makes the job of classifying his work difficult by contemporary academic modes of categorization. Despite his extensive writings on political principles and politics and significant influence on numerous British politicians, he never regarded the political sphere as an end in itself. Above all, he was a political philosopher determined to place politics into a wider, more comprehensive, metaphysical and religious framework.

In this long-overdue analysis of Macmurray, Frank Kirkpatrick traces the development of Macmurray's thought with its roots in the Bible, Hegel and the democratic liberal tradition of the west. Kirkpatrick contends that Macmurray's most important contribution to the field is his development of a philosophical understanding of what constitutes an authentic community. Through this analysis, Kirkpatrick explores the extraordinary resonances of Macmurray's political thought in other modern philosophers and reveals his enduring significance.