The methodological program of John Pocock in the paradigm of the approaches of the Cambridge school of intellectual history of political thought

The article deals with the methodological program of one of the key representatives of the Cambridge School of intellectual history of John Pocock. Pocock represents a broad movement of historians and political theorists opposed to idealistic ahistorical approaches in the history of political thought. The most important component of Pocock's approach is his methodological developments, using political language as the main study of the political discourse of a certain historical time. For Pocock, the history of political thought is the history of a dynamic political discussion or discourse produced by historical actors and limited to specific contexts. In this case, it is the understanding of the “political language” in the context of the time and environment in which the author was placed that serves as the key to understanding what exactly the author wanted to mean in his works, and also why he wrote about it. The article analyzes Pocock's methodological approaches aimed at identifying and studying political languages, as well as mechanisms for the correct interpretation of the thoughts of historical actors in political philosophy.