Political Theory as Utopia

Political theory has been described as an `enterprise of discovery' that carries within it the danger of utopianism. This article explores one aspect of that danger: the question of the paradoxical or circular nature of much political thinking. This seems to be both a necessary and an impossibl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistory of the human sciences Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 49 - 62
Main Author Lassman, Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London SAGE Publications 01.02.2003
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Definitions
Deliberative democracy
Democracy
Epistemology
Haberman, Jurgen
History of ideas
Humanities
Marx, Karl
Plato
Political Philosophy
Political Science Theories
Political Theories
Political theory
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Social theory
Theoretical Problems
Utopianism
Utopias
Rousseau
utopia
Habermas
Plato
deliberative democracy
Marx
Rawls
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Summary:Political theory has been described as an `enterprise of discovery' that carries within it the danger of utopianism. This article explores one aspect of that danger: the question of the paradoxical or circular nature of much political thinking. This seems to be both a necessary and an impossible feature of such theorizing. Political theory itself seems to require an idea of utopia that is, by definition, impossible to achieve.
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ISSN:0952-6951
1461-720X
DOI:10.1177/0952695103016001005