Political Theory Today: Who's Teaching What to Whom? Some Reflections

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (02) ◽  
pp. 279-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Ackelsberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Enormous Amount

Matthew Moore's survey and analysis reflect an enormous amount of work, for which all of us who study or teach political theory should be grateful. They offer us a fascinating snapshot of who is teaching political theory today, of how they understand and think about what they are doing, and ofhow they think othersthink about theory. Much that is included in his analysis (and especially in the longer paper from which the report here is selected) is well worth further study and debate, as it opens a door to the ways political science in general (and not theory alone) is being taught around the country: what political scientists think they are doing when they/we teach their material, what training they/we have, and even what modal teaching loads are.

Democracy and Unfreedom: Revisiting Tocqueville and Beaumont in America

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara M. Benson
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
Jacksonian America

This essay reexamines the famous 1831 prison tours of Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont. It reads the three texts that emerged from their collective research practice as a trilogy, one conventionally read in different disciplinary homes ( Democracy in America in political science, On the Penitentiary in criminology, and Marie, Or Slavery: A Novel of Jacksonian America in literature). I argue that in marginalizing the trilogy’s important critique of slavery and punishment, scholars have overemphasized the centrality of free institutions and ignored the unfree institutions that also anchor American political life. The article urges scholars in political theory and political science to attend to this formative moment in mass incarceration and carceral democracy.

Political Theory and Political Science: Studies in the Methodology of Political Inquiry.Martin Landau

1973 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 1020-1022
Author(s):  
Benjamin W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Science Studies

Roger Boesche: The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville

1988 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 419-422
Author(s):  
James Schleifer
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
History Of

Roger Boesche, Chair of the Department of Political Science at Occidental College in Los Angeles, lias already written several thoughtful articles about Tocqueville, each marked by clarity of thought and expression: ’The Prison: Tocqueville’s Model for Despotism,” Western Political Quarterly 33 (December 1980):550-63; “The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville,” History of Political Thought 2 (Winter 1981): 495-524; “Why Could Tocqueville Predict So Well?” Political Theory 11 (February 1983): 79-104; “Tocqueville and Le Commerce’. A Newspaper Expressing His Unusual Liberalism,” Journal of the History of Ideas 44 (April-June 1983): 277-92; and “Hedonism and Nihilism: The Predictions of Tocqueville and Nietzsche,” The Tocqueville Review 8 (1986/87): 165-84.

scholarly journals The “Absence of Chance” and the “Serving of Ends”

Spectrum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quah Say Jye
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Principles

Aristotle’s concept of nature, captured in quotations such as “nature does nothing in vain” and “man by nature is a political animal,” is a topic consistently discussed within scholarly literature. This paper’s primary aim is to demonstrate how Aristotle’s concept of nature underpins his political theory. It first uncovers Aristotle’s concept of nature, then it demonstrates how this concept underpins his political principles. Aristotle’s concept of nature is first broken down to two ideas: the “absence of chance,” which describes the regularity and permanence of phenomena, and the “serving of ends,” which explains Aristotle’s teleological approach. As such, Aristotle’s nature is used both to describe and explain phenomena, and therefore it shows both how and why certain phenomena occur. Armed with this understanding of nature, this paper shows how Aristotle applies this concept of nature to derive two political principles - the “principle of rulership” and the “social instinct.” These political principles in turn underpin his political theory and approach to political science. This paper shows that, through an understanding of Aristotle’s concept of nature, we can better understand the foundation of his politics.

The Muslim Tradition of Political Philosophy

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahrough Akhavi
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Epistemological Foundation ◽  
The Individual

The doctrine of salvation in Islam centers on the community of believers. Contemporary Muslim political philosophy (or, preferably, political theory) covers a broad expanse that brings under its rubric at least two diverse tendencies: an approach that stresses the integration of religion and politics, and an approach that insists on their separation. Advocates of the first approach seem united in their desire for the “Islamization of knowledge,” meaning that the epistemological foundation of understanding and explanation in all areas of life, including all areas of political life, must be “Islamic.” Thus, one needs to speak of an “Islamic anthropology,” an “Islamic sociology,” an “Islamic political science,” and so on. But there is also a distinction that one may make among advocates of this first approach. Moreover, one can say about many, perhaps most, advocates of the first approach that they feel an urgency to apply Islamic law throughout all arenas of society. This article focuses on the Muslim tradition of political philosophy and considers the following themes: the individual and society, the state, and democracy.

Environmental Political Theory, Environmental Ethics, and Political Science

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Smith
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Policy Problems

Environmental political theory serves as an important bridge between political science and environmental ethics. Environmental ethics has traditionally focused on our duties to non-humans and expanding our conception of the moral community. But that focus on individual ethical choice limits its usefulness in addressing environmental policy problems. Political science, in contrast, is well-suited to analyzing social structural forces that give rise to environmental problems, but political scientists have had considerable difficulty in moving away from the field’s anthropocentric foundations. I argue that environmental political theory, in contrast to traditional political science, embraces the critique of anthropocentrism developed by environmental ethicists. It attempts to build theories of justice, citizenship, and political rights and duties on a more expansive understanding of the community of justice.

Introduction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Sabl
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Political Disagreement ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Practical Politics ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Or History

This introductory chapter discusses how David Hume's political ideas shed light on a host of questions in political theory, political science, and practical politics that would otherwise seem intractable. Aspects of Hume's work that might seem either hard to understand or of questionable modern relevance when treated with the methods of philosophy or history both fall into place and prove their continuing importance when viewed through the lens of political theory. Political theorists can find in Hume an innovative, unfamiliar way of understanding and addressing political disagreement. Hume's “liberalism of enlargement” suggests that moral factions divide the members of polities; whereas political interests, suitably defined and creatively accommodated, unite them.

Political Science and Political Theory in Hume’s Essays

2018 ◽  
pp. 290-316
Author(s):  
FREDERICK G. WHELAN
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science

POLITICAL SCIENCE/POLITICAL THEORY

2005 ◽  
pp. 207-232
Author(s):  
EMILY HAUPTMANN
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science
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