Scientific Models and Political Theory
The Ideal Theory Debate Revisited
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20142565 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryan Nefdt (0000-0002-2118-9960, Department of Philosophy University of Cape Town, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1585-1608 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theoria (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0040-5825 • E-ISSN: 1755-2567 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/theo.12368 |
| OpenAlex | W3216775063 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 57 |
Political philosophy has traditionally been defined as a normative discipline with a distinctively ideal component, largely informed by moral philosophy. In this paper, I investigate a prominent critique of ideal theory specifically with the goal of resituating the debate within a larger framework in the philosophy of science. I then mount a novel case for how ideal theory should be viewed in terms of scientific modelling. I close with a discussion of how this view can dissolve apparent paradoxes and provide distinct advantages to the political theorist
Epistemology · Ideal (ethics) · Ideal theory · Normative · Philosophy of science · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy, Science, and History
As If
Micromotives and macrobehaviour.
Politics and the Search for the Common Good
Simulation and Similarity
How the Laws of Physics Lie
Explaining Science
The Devil in the Details
The Imperative of Integration
Models as Mediators
The strategy of model-based science
Three Kinds of Idealization
Kant, Ideal Theory, and the Justice of Exclusionary Zoning
On the Messy “Utopophobia vs. Factophobia” Controversy
On the Very Idea of Ideal Theory in Political Philosophy
Towards Justice and Virtue
A Philosopher of Science Looks at Idealization in Political Theory
What Do We Want from a Theory of Justice?
A Theory of Justice
Nonideal Theory
On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy
Ideal and Nonideal Theory
Reflections on the Transition from Ideal to Non-Ideal Theory
What’s Ideal About Ideal Theory
Ideal Theory in Theory and Practice
Three Failed Charges against Ideal Theory
Philosophy and Real Politics
Abstraction, Idealization and Ideology in Ethics
Ideal vs. Non‐ideal Theory
First steps toward a nonideal theory of justice
Normative theorizing and political data
On the Apparent Paradox of Ideal Theory
Ideal Theory” as Ideology
Ideal Theory? as Ideology
Infinity and the foundations of linguistics
Models and the locus of their truth
A Revealing Flaw in Colyvan's Indispensability Argument
Who is a Modeler
Theft Is Property! The Recursive Logic of Dispossession
Theory, Ideal Theory and the Theory of Ideals
On the Confusion Between Ideal and Non-Ideal in Recent Debates on Global Justice
Bridging Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory
Facts and Principles
Ideal and Nonideal Theory
Linguistic modelling and the scientific enterprise
Idealization
Choice, Welfare and Measurement
Realism in Normative Political Theory
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |