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

Title
On the necessarily non-empirical nature of political philosophy (or why political philosophy is not a sub-discipline of political science)
Publication Date
2020
Author(s)
Walsh, Adrian
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1959-254X
Email: awalsh@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:awalsh
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
Australia
DOI
10.1080/10361146.2020.1822775
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/29737
Abstract
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.
Link
Citation
Australian Journal of Political Science, 55(4), p. 445-455
ISSN
1363-030X
1036-1146
Start page
445
End page
455

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