The Status of Political Philosophy

In questioning the status of political philosophy among other fields of humanities, there would be many answers in different paradigms. In classical thoughts, with a normative view on human being and society, political philosophy lies under the category of practical philosophy. In this respect, it has a fixed correlation with ethics, and all its statements seem to be universal. But in modern era, the normative characteristic was seen as problematic, and political philosophy was reduced a power/security oriented realm. Protecting itself against the attacks of positivists, political philosophy abandoned its cliams of universality and normativity. In order to retain its existence and to affirm its utility, political philosophy appeared as a paradigm focusing on itself as its object. This is like what happened in the field of linguistics where language turned out to be its subject and object at the same time. Finally, “political entity can be effective and important in explaining the present status of political philosophy, and interprating its meaning.