Political theories are judged by both their axioms and their derived theorems.
Evidence
Every grand approach to politics gives us an axiom or set of axioms from which judgements on more particular institutional matters are meant to flow; the axioms need not represent a unique base of justification, as in a foundationalist scheme, but they do claim to be a good startingpoint for organizing intuitions. Any such approach is bound to be judged, then, on two fronts: one, for the attractions of the axiom or axioms, both in themselves and in the organizational role that they are allotted; and two, for the plausibility and adequacy of the theorems that are derived from those axioms. The picture fits with John Rawls’s (1971) method of reflective equilibrium, as described later in this book. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 88
Categorization
- XREF: Two-front standard for political theory directly parallels Rawls’s reflective equilibrium; useful frame if the reader analyzes other solidarity/good-community theories. — connects to: Reason shifts from universal metalanguage to a plurality of axiomatic systems — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 327; Euclidean axiomatic structure dominated Newton Principia and political doctrine — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 208; Logical abstraction is simultaneously a sociological abstraction. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 528
Broader Connections
- Reason shifts from universal metalanguage to a plurality of axiomatic systems
#expands(0.80) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 327 - Euclidean axiomatic structure dominated Newton Principia and political doctrine
#exemplifies(0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 208 - Logical abstraction is simultaneously a sociological abstraction.
#expands(0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 528