Political Philosophy as a Critical Activity

In: Political theory: an international journal of political philosophy, Band 30, Heft 4, S. 533-555

Abstract

Reflects on the definition(s) of political theory. As the task of studying politics is by nature multiple & fluid, four key attributes are identified: (1) a privileging of practice; (2) an objective that seeks not to establish norms but rather to provide, via critical thinking, solutions to problems of governance; (3) the historicized attention to discursive formations & their genealogies; & (4) an ongoing dialogic engagement with present struggles & transformations. This approach, although part of a tradition that goes back to the ancients, is analyzed along a modern continuum from Enlightenment (Rousseau & Wollstonecraft through Marx & Mill), post-Enlightenment or modernist (Nietzsche through Arendt & Adams), & recent postmodern (eg, Skinner, Cambridge School, Foucault, & Said) applications. K. Coddon