Geuss argues that the contemporary hegemonic view of politics as applied ethics is the result of certain western philosophical traditions, and that recent social conflicts call this understanding into question.

According to him, since Hobbes this approach has been persistent among political scientists but it tends to overlook the fact that historical and geographical differences among societies and cultures play a major role in the concepts of 'order' and 'intolerable disorder'.

Geuss notes that nowadays the freedom to own private firearms is generally rejected in western European societies, while in the United States this is something considered natural.

The way a given society adopts cultural and behavioural traits may be completely different from, and sometimes, opposed to, another; leading to conflicts and frictions that are perfectly supported by either side but incomprehensible to third parties.

Using many examples from history (William Morris' utopias, Kantian philosophy) and everyday social life, Geuss concludes that those concepts are subject to many conditions and a closer inspection is needed in order to overcome their apparent universality.