Journal of the History of Ideas

In the works that follow The Logic of the History of Ideas, Mark Bevir develops a post-foundational, participatory, and deliberative conception of democracy. This article examines the relationship between Bevir’s logic of the history of ideas and his logic of democratic deliberations. I argue that, given Bevir’s own framework, the logic of the concepts that are employed by historians can and should be vindicated through the logic of democratic deliberations. In this understanding, historical meanings are not objects that are analytically prior to the narrative in which they are embedded. They form an integral part of the narrative itself.