Political Theory and the Study of Politics: A Report of a Conference

1956 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Eckstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sharp Distinction ◽  
Basic Issue ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
The One

The issues which arose during the discussions of the conference fall fairly conveniently into three compartments.First, we obviously had to settle, with reasonable clarity, what we were talking about: what “political philosophy” is, what “political science” is, and whether they are really distinguishable. The basic issue of the conference was to determine the relevance of the one to the study of the other, and if we had decided that they were really the same thing, there would simply have been no problems for us to discuss. On the whole, we felt that a valid, if not necessarily sharp, distinction was to be made between the “philosophical” and the “scientific” approaches to the study of politics and that we were not discussing absurd or tautological issues. We agreed, however, that all types of political inquiry involve the construction of theory, implicit or explicit, and that the title “political theory” has been unjustifiably appropriated by the historians of political thought.

28. Nietzsche

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Widder
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
Ascetic Ideal ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
The One ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Genealogy Of Morals

This chapter examines Friedrich Nietzsche's political philosophy, first by focusing on his claim that the ‘death of God’ inaugurates modern nihilism. It then explains Nietzsche's significance for political theory by situating him, on the one hand, against the Platonist and Christian traditions that dominate political philosophy and, on the other hand, with contemporary attempts to develop a new political theory of difference. The chapter also considers Nietzsche's genealogical method and proceeds by analysing the three essays of On the Genealogy of Morals, along with his views on good and bad, good and evil, slave morality, the ascetic ideal, and the nihilism of modern secularism. Finally, it reviews contemporary interpretations of Nietzsche's relation and relevance to political theory and how his philosophy has inspired a broader set of trends that has come to be known as ‘the ontological turn in political theory’.

Kant’s Political Philosophy as a Theory of Non-Ideal Normativity

Kant-Studien ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Horn
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract:Kant’s political philosophy confronts its interpreters with a crucial difficulty: it is far from clear if (or how) Kant, in his political theory, makes use of the Categorical Imperative (CI). It is notoriously demanding to clarify the relationship that exists between his political thought on the one hand and the ethics of the

scholarly journals Transdisciplinaridade e política. Um encontro possível?

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Irene Viparelli
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
Disciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Specific Relationship ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Objective Being

Why transdisciplinary theory seems to be indifferent to political thought; focusing mainly on the domains of epistemology, ethics and education? Searching a response, we will divided the analyse into three fundamental moments: first, we will try to clarify what’s “transdisciplinarity”. Then, we will explore the relationship between transdisciplinarity and disciplinary knowledge, focusing on the specific relationship between transdisciplinarity and political science. Finally, we will advance two hypotheses: on the one hand, we’ll demonstrate that “politics” is “the removed” of transdisciplinarity, on the other hand, we’ll suggest the need of a “politicization” of transdisciplinary theory to achieve its main objective: being a theory involved in the transformation of the world Resumo O questionamento em torno das condições de possibilidade e das consequências duma abordagem transdisciplinar da política embate logo no problema da essencial indiferença da transdisciplinaridade face ao pensamento político; a reflexão transdisciplinar focando-se até agora principalmente nos domínios da epistemologia, da ética, da educação. A nossa análise dividir-se-á em três momentos fundamentais: em primeiro lugar, e de forma preliminar, cuidaremos de esclarecer o que é para intender com “transdisciplinaridade”. Em seguida, especificando a nossa investigação, levaremos a cabo uma análise da relação entre transdisciplinaridade e saberes disciplinares, focando o olhar quer na relação geral entre transdisciplinaridade e ciências humanas quer na específica entre a transdisciplinaridade e a ciência política. Por fim, avançaremos duas hipóteses fundamentais, estritamente ligadas entre elas: por um lado a de que o “político” representa o “removido” da transdisciplinaridade, por outro, e por conseguinte, a de que apenas uma “politização” do dispositivo teórico transdisciplinar lhe permitiria alcançar o seu principal objetivo: tornar-se uma teoria capaz de desempenhar um papel ativo na transformação do mundo.

Eugenics and Progressive Thought: a Study in Ideological Affinity

1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Freeden
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central Question ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
A Minor

The issues raised by eugenics are of more than passing interest for the student of political thought. In itself a minor offshoot of turn-of-the-century socio-biological thought which never achieved ideological ‘take-off’ in terms of influence or circulation, there was certainly more in eugenics than nowadays meets the eye. The following pages propose to depart from the over-simplistic identification of eugenics, as political theory, with racism or ultra-conservatism and to offer instead two alternative modes of interpretation. On the one hand, eugenics will be portrayed as an exploratory avenue of the social-reformist tendencies of early-twentieth-century British political thought. On the other, it will serve as a case-study illustrating the complexity and overlapping which characterize most modern ideologies. While recognizing, of course, the appeal of eugenics for the ‘right’, a central question pervading the forthcoming analysis will be the attraction it had for progressives of liberal and socialist persuasions, with the ultimate aim of discovering the fundamental affinities the ‘left’ had, and may still have, with this type of thinking.

Arabic Contributions to Medieval Political Theory

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Butterworth
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ibn Khaldun ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The One ◽  
Medieval Political Theory

This article explores political philosophy within the medieval Arabic-Islamic tradition of the Middle East, focusing on the contributions of a few thinkers including Alfarabi, Avicenna, Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd, Averroes, and Ibn Khaldūn. Political philosophy in general differs from political thought, on the one hand, and political theology, on the other, insofar as it seeks to replace opinion about political affairs by knowledge. Political philosophy in the medieval Arabic-Islamic tradition of the Middle East differs from that in the medieval Arabic-Jewish or Arabic-Christian traditions in that it is beholden neither to political nor to theological currents, its occasional rhetorical bows to one or the other notwithstanding. Political thought, best exemplified by the genre known as “Mirrors for Princes,” is always limited by the opinions that dominate the setting and time. Political theology or, for medieval Islam, jurisprudence focuses on how the beliefs and actions set forth in the religious tradition elucidate the conditions justifying warfare or the qualities an individual must have to be considered a suitable ruler.

The Primary Questions of Political Inquiry

1977 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene F. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Broad Agreement ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
The One

No principle commands wider support in political science today than the one which holds that the political scientist's primary task is the construction of theory. Political scientists with little else in common can usually agree on the possibility and desirability of political theory, even though they may disagree vigorously about its nature, source and content. This broad agreement tends to obscure something fundamental, namely, that the very idea of a theory of politics is something peculiar, indeed, something radically problematical. Political life has its own priorities and its own distinctive concerns, and these seem to be at odds with the priorities and concerns of theoretical speculation. The questions that confront the citizen seem to be very different from those that perplex the theorist. A story about the philosopher Anaxagoras serves to illustrate this divergence of the political and theoretical lives as well as the tension between them. It is reported that Anaxagoras took no interest in civic affairs and was blamed for his negligence. When someone asked him whether or not he cared about his country, he replied: “I will have great concern for my country after I have explained the heavens”.

Das Ende der Postdemokratie, den Pessimismus überwinden.

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (188) ◽  
pp. 487-494
Author(s):  
Daniel Mullis
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Windows Of Opportunity ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
The One

In recent years, political and social conditions have changed dramatically. Many analyses help to capture these dynamics. However, they produce political pessimism: on the one hand there is the image of regression and on the other, a direct link is made between socio-economic decline and the rise of the far-right. To counter these aspects, this article argues that current political events are to be understood less as ‘regression’ but rather as a moment of movement and the return of deep political struggles. Referring to Jacques Ranciere’s political thought, the current conditions can be captured as the ‘end of post-democracy’. This approach changes the perspective on current social dynamics in a productive way. It allows for an emphasis on movement and the recognition of the windows of opportunity for emancipatory struggles.

Kierkegaard's Socratic Alternative to Hegel in Fear and Trembling

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Matthew Dinan
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Fear And Trembling

Abstract Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling has traditionally attracted interest from scholars of political theory for its apparent hostility to political philosophy, and more recently for its compatibility with Marxism. This paper argues for a reconsideration of Kierkegaard's potential contributions to political theory by suggesting that the work's shortcomings belong to its pseudonymous author, Johannes de Silentio, and are in fact intended by Kierkegaard. Attentiveness to the literary development of the pseudonym allows us to see a Kierkegaard who is a deeper and more direct critic of Hegel's political philosophy than is usually presumed. By creating a pseudonym whose argument ultimately fails, Kierkegaard employs Socratic irony in order to point readers to the need to recover Socratic political philosophy as the appropriate adjunct to the faith of Abraham, and as an alternative to Hegelian, and post-Hegelian, political thought.

scholarly journals Ethnic Hatred and Universal Benevolence: Ethnicity and Loyalty in Precolonial Myanmar, and Britain

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-338
Author(s):  
Victor Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Pressures ◽  
Legal Equality ◽  
The One

AbstractInsisting on a radical divide between post-1750 ideologies in Europe and earlier political thought in both Europe and Asia, modernist scholars of nationalism have called attention, quite justifiably, to European nationalisms’ unique focus on popular sovereignty, legal equality, territorial fixity, and the primacy of secular over universal religious loyalties. Yet this essay argues that nationalism also shared basic developmental and expressive features with political thought in pre-1750 Europe as well as in rimland—that is to say outlying—sectors of Asia. Polities in Western Europe and rimland Asia were all protected against Inner Asian occupation, all enjoyed relatively cohesive local geographies, and all experienced economic and social pressures to integration that were not only sustained but surprisingly synchronized throughout the second millennium. In Western Europe and rimland Asia each major state came to identify with a named ethnicity, specific artifacts became badges of inclusion, and central ethnicity expanded and grew more standardized. Using Myanmar and pre-1750 England/Britain as case studies, this essay reconstructs these centuries-long similarities in process and form between “political ethnicity,” on the one hand, and modern nationalism, on the other. Finally, however, this essay explores cultural and material answers to the obvious question: if political ethnicities in Myanmar and pre-1750 England/Britain were indeed comparable, why did the latter realm alone generate recognizable expressions of nationalism? As such, this essay both strengthens and weakens claims for European exceptionalism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document