Abstract

This chapter sheds light on an important intellectual influence in the development of Hans Morgenthau’s realism: that of art historians Heinrich Wölfflin and Edgar Wind. Using Morgenthau’s recollections about the influence of these distinguished art historians, Williams takes seriously the notion that for the German theorist, politics was an “art” and not a “science.” By analyzing a specific episode in the development of Morgenthau’s political thought, the chapter argues for a greater engagement between aesthetics and International Relations, as well as leaving behind—or at least provisionally bracketing—disciplinary boundaries and adopting a perspective which is that of intellectual history.

Political realism wants the photographic picture of the political world to resemble as much as possible its painted portrait.

Hans J Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations

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