Leo Strauss, Max Weber, And The Scientific Study Of Politics

by Behnegar, Nasser

• ISBN13: 9780226041438
• ISBN10: 0226041433
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Can politics be studied scientifically, and if so, how? Assuming it is impossible to justify values by human reason alone, social science has come to consider an unreflective relativism the only viable basis, not only for its own operations, but for liberal societies more generally. Although the experience of the sixties has made social scientists more sensitive to the importance of values, it has not led to a fundamental reexamination of value relativism, which remains the basis of contemporary social science. Almost three decades after Leo Strauss's death, Nasser Behnegar offers the first sustained exposition of what Strauss was best known for: his radical critique of contemporary social science, and particularly of political science. Behnegar's impressive book argues that Strauss was not against the scientific study of politics, but he did reject the idea that it could be built upon political science's unexamined assumption of the distinction between facts and values. Max Weber was, for Strauss, the most profound exponent of values relativism in social science, and Behnegar's explication artfully illuminates Strauss's critique of Weber's belief in the ultimate insolubility of all value conflicts. Strauss's polemic against contemporary political science was meant to make clear the contradiction between its claim of value-free premises and its commitment to democratic principles. As Behnegar ultimately shows, valuesthe ethical component lacking in a contemporary social scienceare essential to Strauss's project of constructing a genuinely scientific study of politics.

Author Biography

Nasser Behnegar is an assistant professor of political science at Boston College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
List of Abbreviations	xiii
Introduction	1	(8)
Part I
Political Science in the Age of Relativism	9	(19)
Political Philosophy in the Age of Relativism	28	(37)
Part II
The Fact-Value Distinction and Nihilism	65	(23)
The Fact-Value Distinction and Social Science as a Theoretical Pursuit	88	(24)
The Problem of Social Science	112	(29)
Part III
Strauss's Polemic against the New Political Science	141	(7)
The New Political Science	148	(21)
The Revolt against the Old Political Science	169	(20)
The New Political Science and Liberal Democracy	189	(18)
Concluding Remarks	207	(4)
Works Cited	211	(8)
Index	219