Escape From Machiavellianism? Thomist Themes in Twentieth Century Political Realism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6212239 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Edward Young (0009-0004-3145-4686, Northwestern College - Iowa, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 526-549 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Politics and Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1755-0491 • E-ISSN: 1755-0483 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1755048311000460 |
| OpenAlex | W2125051024 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
Political realism is often seen as vulnerable to the “Machiavellian temptation,” that is, to the bracketing out of moral principles in the conduct of statecraft. In this article, I explore the use of Thomist themes in the writings of Martin Wight (1913–1972), a seminal figure of the so-called English School of international relations theory. Scholars have commented on the Christian realist roots of the English School, but it is little noted that Wight's most famous essay, “Western Values in International Relations,” uses the language of Thomism. By exploring the use of Thomist concepts in Wight's thought and the parallels to be found in the thought of his contemporary, Thomist political philosopher Jacques Maritain, I show how he seeks to escape the realist temptation to Machiavellianism. I then go on to sketch out the possible shortcomings of this approach
Big Five personality traits · Bracketing (phenomenology · Epistemology · International relations · International relations theory · Linguistics · Machiavellianism · Personality · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Realism · Sociology · Temptation · Theology · Thomism · Wight · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
Política entre las naciones
Realist thought from Weber to Kissinger
Controversies in International Relations Theory
Traditions of International Ethics
Twentieth-Century Realism
Culture and the Thomist Tradition
The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations
Realism and International Relations
The Tragic Vision of Politics
The Persistent Spectre
Normative Prudence as a Tradition of Statecraft
The Person and the Common Good
Diplomatic Investigations
Neorealism and its critics
The End of Machiavellianism
No one loves a political realist
Christian Realism and the Foundations of the English School
Political Theory and International Relations
Dilemmas of Politics
From colonialism to theology
Faith, history and Martin Wight
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |