Social Science and Liberal Values in a Time of War

Bibliographic Data

ID6322285
AuthorsJeffrey C Isaac (Indiana University Bloomington, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume2
Issue03
Publication date2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePerspectives on Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1537-5927 • E-ISSN: 1541-0986
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1537592704040265
OpenAlexW2169736389
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror,” which persists with no end in sight. In this paper, I focus on what these developments mean for social science. How should social scientists deal with the threats to civil liberties that always accompany the outbreak of war? Following the precepts of Max Weber, I argue that the flourishing of social science requires that social scientists take responsibility, individually and collectively, for promoting the liberal values that make our academic practices possible. That implies individual scholarly inquiry into the nature and consequences of the war, individual scholarly affiliation with associations that promote academic freedom, and perhaps intervention by professional associations and their affiliates on behalf of academic freedom and political liberties.Jeffrey C. Isaac's books include Democracy in Dark Times; Arendt, Camus, and Modern Rebellion; Power and Marxist Theory; and The Poverty of Progressivism: The Future of American Democracy in a Time of Liberal Decline

Academic freedom · Civil liberties · Democracy · Flourishing · Liberal democracy · Marxist philosophy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Progressivism · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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