SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Where do concepts belong? Who decides? How is it decided? And, if one recognizes the inherent temporality of concepts and their pasts, when is it decided? Focusing on the concept of revolutionaries, this chapter has two aims. First, recognizing that there is always more than one way to think about conceptual history generally, and the concept of ‘revolutionaries’ in and for the discipline of international law in particular, it will offer a way to do so not as an authoritative account or method, but rather as an aperture to a larger conversation which has yet to begin in the discipline about the relationship between revolution and international law. Second, it will offer some reflections on the question of what it means to say a concept belongs to a discipline. To achieve these two aims, the chapter will examine the conceptual belonging of ‘revolutionaries’ in international law in three sections: section 1 will address where a concept belongs – that is to say, it will explore the idea of a disciplinary ‘home’ or ‘place’; section 2 will examine how a concept belongs in a discipline – that is to say, it will examine its ‘fit’ within specific categories of the disciplinary body of knowledge; and finally, section 3 will address why a concept belongs to a discipline – that is to say, it will explore the possible reasons grounding the claim that a concept possesses the quality of disciplinary belonging. I will argue that a conceptual history that explores where, how, and why a concept belongs to a discipline can help one to understand, and come to terms with, the concept’s past(s), present(s), and future(s).