WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT
What is Political Philosophy?
And the Role it Plays Today
Savannah Dye
9/17/2015
“Political philosophy” and “political theory” are versatile, yet relative terms. Ironically, the most unifying aspect of both definitions is their fluidity. One of the only things that theorists concur on is the purpose of a political theory, which is to incite change to a certain degree. The intention of political theorists and political philosophers alike is to unveil the deeper problems in our world, and to emphasize the importance of contemplation as a catalyst for rectification. George H. Sabine indirectly defines political philosophy as “a study of the nature and well-being of civic societies…” Sabine explains
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Second, “it contains statements of what may be roughly called a causal nature, to the effect that one kind of thing is more likely to happen, or may be easily brought about, than another (Sabine 6).” This part is emphasizing what the endgame of that particular situation more than likely will be if no action is taken in a different direction. The third and final part of this basic format that Sabine gives us “contains statements that something ought to happen or is the right and desirable thing to have happen (Sabine 6).” This is the normative portion of his explanation, and the most important part of a theory because it serves as a call to action. The philosopher visualizes a more advantageous outcome to the situation at hand, and they aim to alter the future with their ideas of a romanticized society. As far as psychological effects go, Sabine recognizes that passion is intrinsically alluring. Figuratively speaking, if you eliminate the logical portion of your theory, passion alone acts as an “effective short-cut (Sabine 8)” allowing one to bypass logic altogether. Rather than a theory, a philosopher could advocate an ideology which has proven to be just as effective in many cases. Leo Strauss very specifically distinguishes between “political philosophy” and “political theory.” In his opinion, political theory isn’t as prestigious of a term as political philosophy, and shouldn’t be held to as high of a standard. Political philosophy predates political theory,
What influence have the rationalist, structuralist and culturalist theoretical approaches had on the study of comparative politics?
When looking into the ideas of political theorists it is important to the use of political concepts that may play an important role in what the theorists are suggesting and also how they may affect the relationship between to state and the individuals living within a state. The concepts that will be looked at within this essay are: power, authority and also accountability.
As an academic discipline, Western political philosophy has its origins in ancient Greek society, when city-states were experimenting with various forms of political organization including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. One of the first, extremely important classical works of political philosophy is Plato's The Republic, which was followed by Aristotle's Politics. Roman political philosophy was influenced by the Stoics, and the Roman statesman Cicero wrote on political philosophy.
Over the length of this course, we have discussed several aspects of politics. We have studied citizenship and obligations to society as a citizen, justice and what it means to us as individuals, and how to go about enacting change within a community and around the world. Some of the most important topics from this class included the characteristics, duties, and obligations of rulers of government. In addition to the concept of rulers, we also studied the notion of authority and the moral and metaphysical implications of authority to individuals ' autonomy. Within each concept of study, we read works from many authors with conflicting ontologies, constructed from their differing views on human nature.
Political Philosophy is typically a study of a wide range of topics such as, justice, liberty, equality, rights, law, politics and the application of a codified law. Depending on what the philosophy is, it usually tends to be a very sensitive and a personal ideology that an individual holds within the reality of their existence. Several of the fundamental topics of political philosophy shape up the society that we live in as these specific topics and their implementation by the state ensures a legitimate government. In Political Philosophy, the aforesaid concepts or topics are evaluated and analyzed with tremendous depth in context to their history and intent. Furthermore, in a rather colloquial sense, political
By looking at the readings of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke, there are a few distinctions between how the modern thinkers viewed politics versus the way the ancient thinkers believed politics should be. There are many topics both modern and ancient thinkers discuss in their writings, such as the purpose of politics, the science of politics, human nature, as well as the ideal regime. By doing so, these thinkers’ views on political topics such as these illuminate how they thought politics should work and who should be able to participate in the activity of politics.
Political theory emerged as a separate science and way of thinking in the last half of the
Within political philosophy, there are varying arguments regarding the
The second option the political theorist has is to accept that any attempt to give a foundational theory of legitimate government will depend partly upon speculation. This does not mean, of course, that this speculation has no boundaries. The theorist must tailor a speculative account as closely as possible to the reality of things. What I mean by this is that the theorist must try to mirror reality as closely as possible, only filling in those areas which need filling. In addition, the theorist has an obligation to make clear which parts are empirical and which parts are speculative.
Political science is a broad topic that covers the history, political and geographical aspect of the world. The course started with a revision on the basics of the constitution, types of power and the political scene that happens around us. My first year at the University, one of the compulsory subject that is required for arts taking students is Political Science 1101. After several years of taking social or political course, taking this course opened my knowledge towards politics and the political scene in Canada. It also taught me about how different ways of information taking could lead to one learning differently from others. For example this class gave us the opportunity to use our laptops as a source of note taking, this helped me learn in which whenever a new vocabulary comes up during the class discussions i could search it up. Through “The Road to Patriation” and Kim Campbell “Through the Looking Glass” i would further emphasize my ideas on what i have learnt throughout the course semester.
Political science is the study of people’s behavior as it relates to control the public organizations. The concept is normally divided into six subcategories: Political philosophy- which deals with
Political theory is the study of concepts that allows for the analytical study of relationships between political institutions. Over the centuries, political theorists have established renditions of what political theory is. This essay will focus on Plato, Nietzsche, and Aristotle, and their works, which respectively define the concepts of the common good and the significance of philosophers to the welfare of the state, self-deceiving intellect and the power of authority over our intellectual lives, and the concepts of interdependency and the importance of virtue and happiness for a successful political framework.
Political Philosophy is a wide branch of philosophy that focuses statements and arguments involving political opinion. It is all about state, politics itself, liberty, justice and the idea of authority. It tackles the meaning of government itself, why it is needed, what makes a government legitimate, the freedom of its underman, duties of both government and citizens and other political stuff. This type of philosophy is being practiced since it was discovered and has two reasons. First is the method and approach the philosopher and second is the philosopher's agenda that made him came up with the methods he used. Political Philosophy have major theories that includes Anarchism,
Political philosophy is the study of basic questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, justice etc. political philosophy is concerned with the concepts and arguments involves in political opinion. It is ethics applied to a group of people, discusses about societies set up.In political philosophy it is important to know what ought to be a person’s relationship in a society. This seeks application of ethical concepts to social sphere. It is a standard which help to analyze and judge existing institutions and relationships. According to Bernard Williams “political philosophy is not just applied moral philosophy, which is what in our culture it is often taken to be….political philosophy must use distinctively political concepts, such as power, and its normative relative, legitimation.” Leo Strauss has said “Philosophy is the quest for wisdom and political philosophyis the attempt truly to know about the nature of political things and the right or the good political order.” In the history of political philosophy, many philosophers have born and influence the era with their theory. There some renowned philosopher from ancient time to modern are Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau etc.They gave theory on state, Justice, government, education. In western political history Plato is a legend philosopher whose thought considered wealth of the century and till influence the people’s thinking world.The Republic is his famous book where he
The society in which Americans live in today, is in certain aspects far more complex than it ever was for our ancestors. This new complexity is seen on both a micro and macro level and everything that falls in between. Perhaps American society is inherently more complex due to the fact that most if not every societal problem that is encountered, tends to gear towards a political nature in the method of solving. It seems that Americans no longer abide by the do it yourself mentality, and as times goes by we as a people look to the government leaders to solve our problems when they are beyond our capabilities, not realizing that in doing so we also bestow the power upon them to make decisions for society as a whole. When you have an issue