The Political Sciences
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of methodology and moral philosophy, Hugh Stretton's The Political Sciences mounts a bold and provocative challenge to the prevailing orthodoxies of value-free social science. Rather than accepting the dominant positivist claim that political inquiry can — or should — be conducted in a neutral, objective vacuum, Stretton argues with intellectual force and clarity that all political analysis is inescapably shaped by the values, imagination, and selective judgements of the analyst. Drawing on a sweeping range of historical and contemporary case studies, the work dissects the hidden assumptions embedded in the major traditions of political thought, demonstrating how ostensibly scientific frameworks are never as detached from ideology as their proponents insist. A landmark contribution to the philosophy of the social sciences, The Political Sciences is distinguished by Stretton's lucid, combative prose and his rare ability to render abstract methodological debates both accessible and urgently relevant. The work stands as a sustained argument for intellectual honesty — a call for scholars to openly acknowledge, rather than disguise, the value commitments that inevitably inform their research. Decades after its initial publication, its central thesis remains a sharp and unsettling provocation for anyone who believes political science can be practiced without taking sides.
Author: Hugh Stretton
Format: Paperback
Published: 1972
Genre: Politics & law
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of methodology and moral philosophy, Hugh Stretton's The Political Sciences mounts a bold and provocative challenge to the prevailing orthodoxies of value-free social science. Rather than accepting the dominant positivist claim that political inquiry can — or should — be conducted in a neutral, objective vacuum, Stretton argues with intellectual force and clarity that all political analysis is inescapably shaped by the values, imagination, and selective judgements of the analyst. Drawing on a sweeping range of historical and contemporary case studies, the work dissects the hidden assumptions embedded in the major traditions of political thought, demonstrating how ostensibly scientific frameworks are never as detached from ideology as their proponents insist. A landmark contribution to the philosophy of the social sciences, The Political Sciences is distinguished by Stretton's lucid, combative prose and his rare ability to render abstract methodological debates both accessible and urgently relevant. The work stands as a sustained argument for intellectual honesty — a call for scholars to openly acknowledge, rather than disguise, the value commitments that inevitably inform their research. Decades after its initial publication, its central thesis remains a sharp and unsettling provocation for anyone who believes political science can be practiced without taking sides.