POWER POINT COPIES
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
philosophical – practical – empirical
–
emphases separate but they interact significantly
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
philosophical: reason seeking to
understanding “essence” of the phenomenon at hand, e.g., the “self” and
how this relates to political order
–
but “understanding” human
behavior means empirically
[scientific type studies] as well as rationally [reason, logic] as best as
possible in attempt to approach Truth
•
Plato: reason emphasized but aware of contemporary politics
•
Aristotle: more empirical in observing politics and matching with
values and philosophical conclusions as to happiness and the good society
–
can only have the kind of politics
the values of a society will allow
–
need to develop habits of virtue in
populace
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
Philosophy asks “why” we choose
[policies, obligations, rights, etc.] as we do
•
Justice
as major topic since is the ordering principle of legitimacy of
political power
–
Gorgias
(1) raises the question of justice
–
Gorgias
(2) makes it a matter of deliberation through logical reasoning
and not simply appearance and word games
•
still a critical debates re: postmodernists/realists who argue
that all is word games and might makes right [Callicles]
–
Plato challenges with “better
to suffer than do an injustice” and the exploration of what is really the
“true” benefit to a person who desires to rule
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
Gorgias
significance:
–
values at the forefront and
philosophical reasoning critical
•
who we are is critical to political
understanding, thus exploration of self with concepts such as “soul” and
“life” and relationship to ruling
•
RELATIONSHIP TO RULING RAISES
LINK TO
–
“PRACTICAL”
WHICH ASKS HOW TO EFFECTIVELY REFLECT VALUES [WHATEVER THEY MAY
BE, INCLUDING SIMPLY THE VALUE OF HELPING ONESELF] IN POLITICS AND
–
“EMPIRICAL” WHICH SEEKS
THROUGH “SCIENTIFIC” STUDY TO PROVIDE THE INFORMATION FOR
“PRACTICAL” POLITICAL ACTION
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
PRACTICAL Thinking --- the “how
to” thinking
–
Interacts
with philosophical:
•
need to understand values held in society whether for them or not
•
if seeking self benefit, need to understand both “self’ and
‘benefit”
•
to maintain power need to decide on values to teach and develop in
the society
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
Special emphasis of
the practical points to how to gain, maintain and use
political power [“use” may be for “good” or simply as part of
maintaining one’s political power]
–
Callicles in Gorgias argued
this is the crux of the matter – what is critical is what works in a given
context to gain and hold a position of might/power
–
Machiavelli in 16th the
same notion and not “true” justice. The appearance of justice
is the critical practical piece [Callicles and Machiavelli]
•
a sense of justice in the populace is critical to establishing a
stable political order whether only appearance [Machiavelli/Callicles] or real
[Plato]
•
All the King’s Men and how much “dirt” to produce the good
[use “bad” to produce “good”]
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
Empirical Study:
–
interaction with other types:
•
fact-value links [study in order to produce “good” policy,
etc. or the fact, such as poverty, determined by the value as to what is
“quality of life”]
•
practical depends increasingly on “scientific” analyses of
elections, etc.
TYPES OF THINKING ABOUT POLITICS
•
Empirical Thinking: Its special
emphasis is”
–
if one is to understand essence of
human being need to study human behavior “scientifically” [e.g., if people
are naturally aggressive or cooperative studies]
–
study how to bring something about
[values desired] in a given social context
given empirical studies of successes and failures [win elections, persuade
populace of a policy, etc.]
–
study which policies have produced
which results whether desired or not simply to get the “facts” straight for
policy making