On the necessarily non-empirical nature of political philosophy (or why political philosophy is not a sub-discipline of political science)

Bibliographic Data

ID6234295
AuthorsAdrian Walsh (0000-0002-1959-254X, University of New England, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume55
Issue4
Pages445-455
Publication date2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1036-1146 • E-ISSN: 1363-030X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10361146.2020.1822775
OpenAlexW3088740068
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited20

Is political philosophy a part or a sub-discipline of political science? In this paper I defend the claim that, although there is substantial overlap between the two, political philosophy is not a mere subset of political science, since it has distinct questions upon which it is focused as well as methods that are often remarkably distinct from those of political science. Those questions are immune to resolution by empirical methods, Accordingly, I political philosophy is not a part of political science because it deals with questions that cannot be resolved entirely using empirical methods. It is, in this sense, ‘speculative’ to a degree that political science is not

American political science · Biology and political science · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Philosophy of science · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Systems theory in political science · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

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