The Concept of the Political Belief

Some books are most profitably read backward, or at least with their endings in mind. Once you’ve read an Agatha Christie novel, you derive a new enjoyment from finding and parsing the clues and hints she leaves throughout the book that point to the ending. Once you know that Sydney Carton sacrifices his life to save Charles Darnay, you can chart his progression through A Tale of Two Cities from a jaded, dissolute pining after Lucie Manette to someone capable of doing that “far better thing.” Oliver Traldi’s Political Beliefs: A Philosophical Introduction may not be on par with such classics, but it is valuable—and profitably read with its conclusion in mind.