Political Philosophy As a Critical Activity

TLDR

The question of what constitutes political theory has no single answer, and the field remains an open‑ended dialogue that yields insight through reciprocal questioning. The author proposes to introduce a particular approach to studying politics. This approach will be developed through reciprocal elucidation.

Abstract

The editor ofPolitical Theory asked us to respond to the question, ‘What is political theory?’This question is as old as political theory or political philosophy. The activity of studying politics, whether it is called science, theory, or philosophy, always brings itself into question. The question does not ask for a single answer, for there are countlessways of studying politics and no universal criteria for adjudicating among them. Rather, the question asks, ‘What comparative difference does it make to study politics this way rather than that?’Political theory or philosophy not only spans three millennia of studying politics in innumerable ways but also threemillennia of dialogues among practitioners over various approaches, their relative merits, and the contestable criteria for their comparison. Because there is no definitive answer, there is no end to this dialogue. Rather, it is the kind of open-ended dialogue that brings insight through the activity of reciprocal elucidation itself. Dialogue partners gain insight into what ruling, being ruled, and contesting rule is through the exchange of questions and answers over different ways of studying politics and different criteria for their assessment in relation to how they throw light on different aspects of the complex worlds of politics—and what counts as the ‘different aspects of the complexworlds of politics’is also questioned in the course of the dialogue. With this horizon of the question inmind, Iwish to respond by introducing one amongmanyways of studying politics and to initiate its reciprocal eluci-