Political Theory as a profession

A proposal on Hannah Arendt’s example

Authors

  • Pedro Abellán Artacho Universidad Complutense de Madrid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.201.01

Abstract

This article characterises a logic of research in Political Theory that is distinguishable from both (1) Political Philosophy or normative Political Theory and (2) empirical Political Science, the History of Political Ideas, Discourse Analysis or the study of Ideologies. In other words, it identifies a form of academic work that does not pass autonomous value judgements ‒following the Weberian approach‒, but also avoids reducing Political Theory to a just descriptive and/or explanatory work. The example of Hannah Arendt, together with other contributions, will serve as a model to define the tasks and responsibilities of this logic and to delimit the political character of its contributions. To this end, it will be argued that Arendt’s comprehensive work has important similarities with Max Weber’s methodological proposal, although it goes further.

Published

2023-09-21

Issue

Section

ARTICLES