Political Theory: Methods and Approaches
David Leopold
Language: English
Pages: 264
ISBN: 0199230099
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Political Theory: Methods and Approaches is one of the first books to analyze research methods in political theory and political philosophy. Drawing together essays by a distinguished set of contributors, this rich and varied collection introduces students to many of the often unelaborated methods and approaches that currently inform the work of leading scholars in the field. The selections consider how political theory should be conducted today and also examine the complex and contested connections between political theory and a range of adjacent disciplines--moral philosophy, the empirical social sciences, the history of political thought, the world of "real" politics, critical social theory, and ideology. Both individually and as a collection, these essays will promote understanding and provoke further debate amongst students and established scholars alike.
Justification and Critique: Towards a Critical Theory of Politics
Philosophical Anarchism and Political Obligation (Contemporary Anarchist Studies)
Thinking about Property: From Antiquity to the Age of Revolution (Ideas in Context)
Pluralism and the Personality of the State (Ideas in Context)
The real problem with creationists isn’t that they are unscientific—it’s that they are mistaken. They hold false beliefs, for bad reasons, and once we’ve done the hard work of identifying the substantive defects in their theories, to then attach epithets such as ‘unscientific’ or ‘unreasonable’ is an empty exercise in name-calling. And the same holds true in the domain of political philosophy. I firmly believe, for example, that the practice of circumcising young girls is unjust, and I also believe.
Should we go about doing it?’ There is one answer to that question that has proved attractive not only to philosophers but also to social and political scientists of a positivist cast of mind, because it allows for a mutually convenient division of labour between them. The answer runs as follows. The basic principles of political philosophy are to be established without reference to empirical questions. By rational reflection or in some other way we decide upon fundamental principles of liberty,.
Description is very likely indeed to be a chaffinch, even though there is no entailment (there exist other birds fitting the description that are not chaffinches). So here we can explain why A grounds B without converting the grounding relationship into one of entailment. The second kind of grounding we might call ‘presuppositional grounding’, where although A doesn’t entail B, A’s being true is a necessary condition of B’s being true. 7 Thus we might say that ‘Fred is a pig’ grounds ‘Fred is a.
Idea of a dialectical approach. The concept of dialectic is not a new one. Few discussions—including this one—can resist some passing mention of its ancient origins, although there is little consensus about where to begin. The linguistic derivation from the Greek dialectik¯e (meaning conversation or, more literally, reasoning by splitting in two) suggests the ancient world, but also generates a confusing breadth of associations. Dialectic is variously linked with the paradoxes propounded by Zeno.
1977). POLITICAL THEORY AND HISTORY 137 of debates on politics certainly change over time, there remains a core set of concerns that mark political activities off from other activities and provide the basis for a sense that there are continuities in the discussion that revolve around political rule and the attempt to exercise political authority. As we have seen, this suggestion was roundly attacked by many in the 1960s who saw it as imposing a straightjacket on the interpretation of classic.