3. Traditional Theories in Global Politics

The Social ◽

Chinese School ◽

This chapter examines traditional theories in global politics. Although much of the explicit theorizing about international politics did not begin until the twentieth century, both liberalism and realism have drawn on long-standing ideas in the history of political thought to address basic problems of international order. So too has the English School which, while encompassing aspects of both liberalism and realism, has focused much more attention on the social character of international or global relations, elaborating in particular the notion of international society and its normative underpinnings. While most theorizing has been carried out largely, but not exclusively, on the basis of Western philosophical ideas, a new Chinese school of moral realism draws from ancient Chinese thought. Ultimately, both liberalism and realism have been modified over the years with competing strands developing within them, so neither can be taken as a single body of theory.

Conclusion—Rousseau’s paradox

The State of the Political ◽

10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.003.0006 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Duncan Kelly

Keyword(s):

Political Thought ◽

Political Community ◽

The Political ◽

Social Democrat ◽

The Social ◽

Adequate Understanding ◽

History Of ◽

The Individual ◽

The Relationship

This chapter binds the book together, recapitulating its general argument, and offering pointers as to how the study relates to some contemporary questions of political theory. It suggests that a classification that distinguishes between Weber the ‘liberal’, Schmitt the ‘conservative’ and Neumann the ‘social democrat’, cannot provide an adequate understanding of this episode in the history of political thought. Nor indeed can it do so for other periods. In this book, one part of the development of their ideas has focused on the relationship between state and politics. By learning from their examples, people continue their own search for an acceptable balance between the freedom of the individual and the claims of the political community.

3. The history of political thought and Marxism

10.1093/actrade/9780198853725.003.0003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 31-50

Author(s):

Richard Whatmore

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Eighteenth Century ◽

Working Class ◽

Political Thought ◽

Karl Marx ◽

Historical Materialism ◽

Scientific Philosophy ◽

History Of ◽

Friedrich Engels

‘The history of political thought and Marxism’ focuses on Marxism, which became the most global and scientific philosophy in the twentieth century. An important figure here is Karl Marx, the outcast from Prussian Trier that famously contributed to the science of historical materialism. Marx’s The Condition of the Working Class in England justified revolution through a philosophy that emerged from reading European history. Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, accepted that the progress of commerce by the end of the eighteenth century made European states more powerful than others in history. Marx’s contemporaries believed that the study of societies in every stage of history is vital in understanding the future.

Karl Dietrich Bracher. The Age of Ideologies: A History of Political Thought in the Twentieth Century. Translated by Ewald Osers. New York: St. Martin's. 1984. Pp. xii, 305. $25.00

The American Historical Review ◽

10.1086/ahr/91.4.912 ◽

1986 ◽

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Political Thought ◽

The age of ideologies: a history of political thought in the twentieth century

International Affairs ◽

10.2307/2619802 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 61 (1) ◽

pp. 148-149

Author(s):

Joseph Frankel

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Political Thought ◽

Kilka uwag o kryzysie i potrzebie filozofii polityki

Civitas. Studia z filozofii polityki ◽

10.35757/civ.2013.15.08 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

pp. 151-177

Author(s):

Michał R. Węsierski

Keyword(s):

Political Thought ◽

Social Life ◽

Cultural Background ◽

Objective Knowledge ◽

Critical Studies ◽

Unique Position ◽

The Social ◽

History Of ◽

Social Engineer

A philosopher of politics should not be a social engineer, even if he were to dabble in piecemeal engineering, in Popper’s sense; he should rather be a social surveyor, responsible for measuring a plot of land for development, for which politicians should in turn be responsible. That measured land is ordered by a system of philosophical notions and critical studies, together with comments on the history of political thought. One of the outcomes of a philosopher’s work should be an ordered thought, i.e. objective knowledge that includes genesis and evolution of philosophical notions, relationships between ideas, and presentation of the cultural background, from which those ideas originated. In this reconstruction work a philosopher of politics needs to move in between the allowed boundaries of the text under analysis. A philosopher does what others cannot do due to the separation of exact sciences from philosophy. Therefore, a philosopher is not beyond scientific inquiries; he can use them as confidently as representatives of those sciences. It can be argued that a philosopher has a unique position in the social life of every group.

The History of Political Thought as Disciplinary Genre

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548439.003.0012 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

James Farr

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Political Science ◽

Political Thought ◽

This article examines the history of political thought between the mid-nineteenth and the later twentieth centuries. It contends that the history of political thought became a disciplinary genre within political science largely because of the works of Robert Blakely, William Dunning, and George Sabine. It contends that a methodological awakening in the later twentieth century brought the disciplinary genre to a close and initiated the latest article in the history of political thought.

Medieval urban history and the history of political thought

Urban History ◽

10.1017/s0963926800006088 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 14-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Susan Reynolds

Keyword(s):

Social History ◽

Urban History ◽

Physical Environment ◽

Political Thought ◽

Cloud Of Unknowing ◽

The Social ◽

History Of ◽

The Subject ◽

Urban Institutions

One of the problems of urban history is the fearsome range of expertise that the urban historian is supposed to appreciate, if not master. Belaboured, rightly, by archaeologists, geographers, and architectural historians, we have begun to open our eyes to the evidence of the physical environment of medieval towns, but that is not the half of it. In order to understand urban institutions one needs to be a religious historian, an economic historian, a legal historian; and if one were ever to make sense of everything that is included in the ‘social history’ of towns, then social anthropology, historical demography, and sociology are only three of the battery of foglamps that would be needed to penetrate our cloud of unknowing. The subject which I now wish to add to the list of those we are supposed to cover does not even have the attraction of sounding new and modish and exciting. The history of political thought has, after all, formed a part of undergraduate history courses in this country ever since they began, and it is traditionally one of the least popular and least satisfactory parts of them, especially for the sort of students who may go on to be interested in urban history: those who relish the exact, the local detail, the reality of topography, the ability to connect the documents of the past with visible phenomena in the present.

The Political Realism of the Egyptian Elite: A Comparison between The Teaching For Merikare and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Il Principe

Journal of Egyptian History ◽

10.1163/18741665-12340020 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 49-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christian Langer

Keyword(s):

Political Thought ◽

Moral Realism ◽

Niccolo Machiavelli ◽

The Political ◽

Political Realism ◽

Niccolò Machiavelli ◽

Essential Properties ◽

History Of ◽

The Masses

A comparison between The Teaching for Merikare and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Il Principe produces some astonishing results. While Machiavelli’s treatise is generally thought to be representative of the dawn of modern Western political realism, its essential properties are already present in Merikare. This includes the firm belief in strong authority, the fallibility of man, the need to appease the masses, and, if necessary, the demand to repress any developing threat to the power of the elite. In terms of the history of political thought Merikare is placed between the works of the moral realism of Greek philosophers like Plato and the political realism of Thucydides and Machiavelli. With the latter being heavily influenced by ancient authors, questions regarding the genesis of Greek political thought can be asked. It may well be that Greek political thought was, at least indirectly, influenced by Egyptian political thought.

The Age of Ideologies: A History of Political Thought in the Twentieth Century

The American Historical Review ◽

10.2307/1873367 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 91 (4) ◽

pp. 912

Author(s):

Martin Jay ◽

Ewald Osers ◽

Karl Deitrich Bracher

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Political Thought ◽

The Topian Tradition

On Borders ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190074197.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 123-142

Author(s):

Paulina Ochoa Espejo

Keyword(s):

Political Thought ◽

Context Sensitivity ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Local Economy ◽

Political Organization ◽

Political Relations ◽

The Social ◽

History Of ◽

Territorial Rights

Are there existing resources in the history of political thought to refocus current political relations to the environment? This chapter argues that parallel to the utopian idea of territorial rights, there is a Topian tradition that deals with the topographical and climatic conditions that make different forms of political organization possible. This tradition aims to discover the social qualities needed to sustain different types of governments, and how climate, topography, and local economy influence these traits. The tradition is characterized by its localism, context-sensitivity of principles, and realism. The chapter examines the arguments of four notable Topian thinkers: Montesquieu, Machiavelli, Rousseau, and Kant. Topian thinking can offer alternative ways of looking at problems of borders and border management that have become impasses in debates about territorial rights.