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There is a significant branch of study in political science (often overlapping with economics, history, and philosophy) called political theory or philosophy th
by parasubvert 13y ago
There is a significant branch of study in political science (often overlapping with economics, history, and philosophy) called political theory or philosophy that is not specific to the study of the state. It is this area where academics inquire into political first principles that don't necessarily presume a state.
John Rawls and Robert Nozick's works, or Edmund Burke, and MIchael Oakeshott fall into this area of inquiry, along with some of the works of Peter Drucker, Murray Rothbard, Fredric Bastiat, etc.
- dragonwriter 13y agoRawls works are largely about the ends of the state rather than the means by which states achieve those ends.
- baddox 13y agoYes, I have mentioned this before in this thread. Of course the ideas of refraining from political action are relevant to the field that studies political workings, in the same way that atheism and other forms of religious skepticism are relevant to religious studies.
- parasubvert 13y agoWe are going in circles. There is a big difference between rejecting the definition of a word and rejecting an entire field of inquiry.