CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Couch, Christopher Robert |
|---|---|
| Title | The Scene That Celebrates Itself? On the Realist Revival in Contemporary Political Theory |
| Summary | In recent years, realism has seen a revival in Anglophone political theory. In this essay, I examine two theses which I believe to be characteristic, but not exhaustive, of the contemporary realist position: the autonomy thesis and the empiricist thesis. The autonomy thesis concerns the relationship between politics and morality: the empiricist thesis concerns the relationship between political theory and sociohistorical data. Although my discussion is weighted towards the former, I find that accepting either or both of these theses is insufficient to warrant the claim that realism offers an attractive and novel methodology for political theorists. Particularly, I suggest that by accepting a weaker autonomy thesis the realist’s opponents—the so-called moralists—are able to overcome some, but not all, of the criticisms levelled against them. |
| Supervisor | Kis, János |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/couch_christopher.pdf |
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