Politics as a ‘Science of Society’ : Pál Hunfalvy’s Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Politics before the Suppression of the Revolution of 1848–9

Lajtai, L. László (2026) Politics as a ‘Science of Society’ : Pál Hunfalvy’s Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Politics before the Suppression of the Revolution of 1848–9. In: Concepts of Politics in Modern Hungarian Thought. Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 125-137. ISBN 978-1-3505-1393-8; 978-1-3505-1394-5; 978-1-3505-1395-2

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Abstract

Although posterity regards Pál Hunfalvy (1810–1891) primarily as a linguist and ethnologist, it was not in these disciplines that this internationally renowned Hungarian scholar was chiefly absorbed during the first phase of his career.1 His biographers frequently overlook the early period of his life, during which, as this chapter will show, he expounded abstract and concrete ideas on politics in a variety of contexts and genres. Since – with one partial exception2 – as far as I know to date no one has analysed the thoughts on politics of this important nineteenthcentury Hungarian scholar, who left behind an oeuvre which was not only highly influential3 but also vast and varied, this chapter should therefore be regarded partly as a presentation of sources on the topic and partly as a first attempt at interpretation.

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