Doing Our Own Thinking for Ourselves: On Quentin Skinner's Genealogical Turn

In the original publication of "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas," Quentin Skinner enjoined that when it comes to seeking "answers" to questions, "we must learn to do our own thinking for ourselves." In this article, I focus on one of the most recent turns in Skinner's work, to a practice of genealogy. By disentangling various claims too often bundled together under the heading of "contingency," and by distinguishing Skinner's practice of genealogy from Nietzsche's, I argue that that Skinner's genealogical turn is at once less novel, more modest, and more productive than his own characterization of it makes it appear.