Ideological self-consciousness: Judith Shklar on legalism, liberalism, and the purposes of political theory

Judith Shklar once remarked that the mere presence of ideology is not objectionable but that pretended immunity to ideology is. I scrutinise this suggestion and Shklar’s subsequent view that social theorists should acknowledge that their ideological impulses influence both their methods of study and the questions they pursue. I begin by focusing on the different ways that Shklar characterised ideology before turning to her critique of legalism. I then chart various ways that Shklar’s call for ideologically self-aware political theorising feeds into her later work. I conclude by examining what ideological self-consciousness implies for our understanding of the purpose and limits of political theory.