scholarly journals Praxis, Sittlichkeit and Communicative Action. On the connection between praxis, Sittlichkeit and communicative action in Aristotle, Hegel, Habermas and Honneth

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Øjvind Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
History Of

The concept of praxis is one of the most fundamental concepts in the history of political philosophy. The most famous example may be Marx’s statement in the eleventh thesis on Feuerbach. The close relation between praxis and polis was grounded in Aristotle’s political philosophy. Hegel leads this concept further with his concept of praxis as Sittlichkeit. Honneth and Habermas are both grounded in the young Hegel’s writings when they try to extrapolate what is essential in Hegel’s concept of praxis and generate a new concept, which may be valid for our time. Honneth is standing by Hegel’s concept of recognition, which he then is forced to leave many years later when rediscovering Hegel’s concept of Sittlichkeit. However, Honneth fails to reconcile praxis and Sittlichkeit. In contrast, Habermas sets in a hermeneutic maneuver language as a substitute for Hegel’s concept of spirit. With this new, effectively metaphysical concept, he is able to formulate a practical philosophy in which both praxis and Sittlichkeit are summarized in communicative action. Habermas’s practical philosophy follows Hegel’s and extends its roots into the history of ideas, back to Aristotle’s foundation of the concept of praxis and, in a broader sense, to the antique democracy of Athens.

Berlin, Isaiah (1909–97)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Williams
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Free Will ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Value Pluralism ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Berlin said that he decided about 1945 to give up philosophy, in which he had worked up to that time, in favour of the history of ideas. Some of his best-known work certainly belongs to the history of ideas, but he continued in fact both to write philosophy and to pursue philosophical questions in his historical work. His main philosophical contributions are to political philosophy and specifically to the theory of liberalism. He emphasizes a distinction between ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ concepts of liberty: the former is a Hobbesian idea of absence of constraint or obstacle, while the latter is identified with a notion of moral self-government, expressed for instance in Rousseau, which Berlin finds politically threatening. His anti-utopian approach to politics is expressed also in his view that values necessarily conflict; this irreducible ‘value pluralism’ may be his most original contribution to philosophy, though advances it through example and historical illustration rather than in semantic or epistemological terms. He also expresses himself against necessitarian interpretations of history, and in favour of an anti-determinist conception of free will.

On the Difference Between a Pupil and a Historian of Ideas

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Edward Green
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Proper Place ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Cambridge School ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract This essay takes up the fundamental question of the proper place of history in the study of political thought through critical engagement with Mark Bevir’s seminal work, The Logic of the History of Ideas. While I accept the claim of Bevir, as well as of other exponents of the so-called “Cambridge School,” that there is a conceptual difference between historical and non-historical modes of reading past works of political philosophy, I resist the suggestion that this conceptual differentiation itself justifies the specialization, among practicing intellectuals, between historians of ideas and others who read political-philosophical texts non-historically. Over and against the figure of the historian of ideas, who interprets political thought only in the manner of a historian, I defend the ideal of the pupil, who in studying past traditions of political thought also seeks to extend and modify them in light of contemporary problems and concerns. Against Bevir, I argue that the mixture of historical and non-historical modes of learning, in the manner of the pupil, need not do damage to the historian of ideas’ commitment to scholarship that is non-anachronistic, objective, and non-indeterminate.

scholarly journals POLITICAL LANGUAGE OF THE INTEGRATION PROCESSES OF THE CMEA COUNTRIES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 468-474
Author(s):  
A.A. Fokin
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Language ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
National Approach

Based on the approach of the history of ideas, the political language of the official discourse of the socialist integration of the CMEA (COMECON) countries is reconstructed. The evolution of the idea of the unification of Europe in the framework of leftist and socialist political philosophy is examined. There are several basic ideas around which the controversy unfolds. The idea of uniting national states is opposed to the idea of forming a supranational basis for integration (primarily internationalism of the proletariat and communist parties). Within the framework of the CMEA model, a national approach was implemented. By virtue of this, the need to create a community of economic interests comes to the fore. The basic concepts are mutual assistance and integration, which denoted various mechanisms of cooperation within the framework of the socialist camp.

scholarly journals Psychophysiological Transcendentalism in Friedrich Albert Lange’s Social and Political Philosophy

2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Theresia Widmer
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
Detailed Understanding ◽  
History Of

Abstract In recent literature, it has been suggested that Lange’s social and political philosophy is separate from his neo-Kantian program. Prima facie, this interpretation makes sense given that Lange argues for an account of social norms that builds on Darwin and Smith rather than on Kant. Still, this paper argues that elements of psychophysiological transcendentalism can be found in Lange’s social and political philosophy. A detailed examination of the second edition of the History of Materialism, Schiller’s Poems, and the second edition of The Worker’s Question reveals that Lange sought to develop a systematic foundation of psychophysiological transcendentalism that is presupposed in his social and political philosophy. This allows for a more detailed understanding of Lange’s practical philosophy and assures him a position in the tradition of neo-Kantian socialism.

Isaiah Berlin

2018 ◽  
pp. 164-184
Author(s):  
Seyla Benhabib
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Value Pluralism ◽  
Isaiah Berlin ◽  
Civic Republicanism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Judith Shklar ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyzes Isaiah Berlin's work, stating that the relationship of liberalism to Berlin's value pluralism remains fraught, as does the question whether value pluralism can avoid relativism. Notably, Judith Shklar and Berlin admired each other and shared a skeptical temperament as well as a dedication to the study of the history of ideas as the indispensable method of pursuing political philosophy in their time. Neither shared Hannah Arendt's conviction that the legacy of failed revolutions could only be countered by the activist civic republicanism of self-governing communities. The chapter also contextualizes the varying views of Berlin's work and persona through the prism of Max Weber's doctrine of value pluralism.

Introduction

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Klosko
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Standard Method ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History

Although this volume is a text on the history of political philosophy, dividing lines between that field and the closely related history of political theory and of political thought are not hard and fast. Part I of the book covers questions of method. This part includes discussion of the contextual method, classically articulated by Quentin Skinner, which is widely regarded as the standard method for studying the history of ideas, including the history of political philosophy. Currently, the chief alternative methods are those associated with Leo Strauss and his followers and a less clearly defined postmodern approach. Part II provides an overview of the entire history of Western political philosophy, with some articles tackling thematic topics such as the influence of Roman law or medieval Arabic political philosophy, socialism, and Marxism. Part III addresses aspects of the history of political philosophy that transcend specific periods and generally change and develop in interesting ways between periods. Part IV explores three major non-Western traditions: Confucianism, Islam, and Hinduism.

Auf dem Rücken der Vergangenheit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Syndikus
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conservative Movement ◽  
American Conservatism ◽  
National Review ◽  
History Of

This comparison of German and American conservatism—in terms of the history of ideas—analyses the divergent developments of the Conservative Movement in the United States and right-wing conservatives in the Federal Republic. Through a parallel reading of the magazines National Review and Criticón, the study examines these countries’ respective forms of conservatism with regard to political positions, leading representatives and structural composition. The result of this work is the enumeration of a series of premises necessary to democratise an originally anti-democratic political philosophy.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James McElvenny
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

This chapter sets the scene for the case studies that follow in the rest of the book by characterising the ‘age of modernism’ and identifying problems relating to language and meaning that arose in this context. Emphasis is laid on the social and political issues that dominated the era, in particular the rapid developments in technology, which inspired both hope and fear, and the international political tensions that led to the two World Wars. The chapter also sketches the approach to historiography taken in the book, interdisciplinary history of ideas.

Utopophobia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Estlund
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Sound Theory ◽  
Theory Versus ◽  
History Of ◽  
Practical Guidance

Throughout the history of political philosophy and politics, there has been continual debate about the roles of idealism versus realism. For contemporary political philosophy, this debate manifests in notions of ideal theory versus nonideal theory. Nonideal thinkers shift their focus from theorizing about full social justice, asking instead which feasible institutional and political changes would make a society more just. Ideal thinkers, on the other hand, question whether full justice is a standard that any society is likely ever to satisfy. And, if social justice is unrealistic, are attempts to understand it without value or importance, and merely utopian? This book argues against thinking that justice must be realistic, or that understanding justice is only valuable if it can be realized. The book does not offer a particular theory of justice, nor does it assert that justice is indeed unrealizable—only that it could be, and this possibility upsets common ways of proceeding in political thought. The book's author engages critically with important strands in traditional and contemporary political philosophy that assume a sound theory of justice has the overriding, defining task of contributing practical guidance toward greater social justice. Along the way, it counters several tempting perspectives, including the view that inquiry in political philosophy could have significant value only as a guide to practical political action, and that understanding true justice would necessarily have practical value, at least as an ideal arrangement to be approximated. Demonstrating that unrealistic standards of justice can be both sound and valuable to understand, the book stands as a trenchant defense of ideal theory in political philosophy.

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