Description
The idea of system, understood as a complex whole formed by the interaction of related parts, is a particular legitimation of modernity. But the character of this idea, the assumptions and attributes that constitute its identity, is obscured by claims about the scientific and secular commitments of modernity. Modernity is neither a fixed time or set of intellectual commitments, but a metanarrative that justifies a particular configuration of reality. This metanarrative conceals the provenance of the idea of system, which is rooted in what modernity is said to have superseded: medieval thought and practice. The aim of this paper is to recover the medieval intellectual culture in which system is intelligible. It begins by problematising the discourse of modernity and what is presented as its uniquely scientific orientation. Then it explores thirteenth and fourteenth century developments in economy and theology which are crucial foundations of modern natural science. System, and its scientific credentials, is neither modern nor disenchanted in the way international relations scholars typically assume. It has a history that imagines the world in a particular way; and comprehending this history allows us to imagine it in different ways.
