In order to develop this conception, I must first make some remarks about the nature of philosophy in general. I broach this topic with mixed feelings, Often definitions of philosophy come to little more than the expression of specific preoccupations and commitments, themselves questionable on philosophical grounds, but disguised as an impartial demarcation between what is "really" philosophy and what is not. Think of the idea that philosophy concerns itself with the conditions of possibility for experience, or that it consists in conceptual analysis. I am myself, to be sure, engaged in explaining how one ought really to do political philosophy. Yet my intention is not to suggest that the positions I oppose fail to qualify as "philosophical," but instead that they fail to get it right about the "political." Still, the way I see the general goal and method of philosophical reflection plays a substantial role in the particular view of political philosophy I propose. That is why the following remarks are necessary, even if they also perhaps go to show that talk about the nature of philosophy inevitably ends up being philosophically controversial. I shall begin at least on neutral ground