Public Philosophy and Political Science Crisis and Reflection

by Statham Jr, E. Robert; Carey, George W.; Ceaser, James W.; Gillespie, Michael A.; Jr, John Gueguen; Henningsen, Manfred; Lowi, Theodore J.; Marini, John; McLean, Edward B.; Peterman, Larry; Ricci, David; Smith, Steven B.; Statham Jr, E Robert

• ISBN13: 9780739102930
• ISBN10: 0739102931
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-29
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

The crisis of western civilization is a crisis of public philosophy. This is the charge of Public Philosophy and Political Science, a stunning new collection of essays edited by E. Robert Statham Jr. Vividly cataloging the decay of the moral and intellectual foundations of civic liberty, the book portrays a generation of Americans alienated from institutions built on public philosophy. The work exposes the failure of America's political scientists to acknowledge and understand this alarming crisis in the American body politic. The distinguished contributors examine the evolution of public philosophy; the inextricable relationship between politics and philosophy; and the interplay between public philosophy, the constitution, natural law, and government. They reveal the dire threat to deliberative democracy and the fundamental order of constitutional society posed by public philosophy's waning power to refine, cultivate, and civilize. The work is an indictment of a society which has discarded a way of life rooted in natural law, democracy and the traditions of civility; and is a denunciation of an educated elite that has divorced itself from the standards upon which public philosophy rests. It is essential reading for philosophers and political and social scientists seeking to resurrect the standards of American public life.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
E. Robert Statham Jr.
Part I. General/Historical Perspectives
What is the Public Philosophy?	3	(24)
James W. Ceaser
American Public Philosophy After the Cold War	27	(16)
Michael A. Gillespie
Part II. Traditionalist Perspectives
On the Degeneration of Public Philosophy in America: Problems and Prospects	43	(14)
George W. Carey
A Public Philosophy: Dangers, Possibilities, and Probabilities	57	(18)
Edward B. McLean
Part III. Political Philosophy and the Public: Skepticism v. Optimism
The Public Philosophy and the Limits of Philosophy	75	(16)
Larry Peterman
The Political Philosopher in the Public Sphere	91	(16)
Manfred Henningsen
Plato and the Modern Escape from Political Responsibility	107	(26)
John A. Gueguen Jr.
Part IV. The Political Science Discipline
Political Science and Political Philosophy: An Uneasy Relation	133	(6)
Steven B. Smith
The Tragedy of Political Science: Science and the Moral Foundations of Democratic Order	139	(28)
David M. Ricci
The State in Political Science: How We Became What We Study	167	(20)
Theodore J. Lowi
Part V. Public Philosophy, American Constitutionalism, and Political Science
Constitutionalism, the Public Philosophy, and Political Science	187	(18)
John Marini
The American Crisis of Public Philosophy and Political Science as a Discipline	205	(12)
E. Robert Statham Jr.
Index	217	(6)
Contributors	223