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Toward the Common Good

A Catholic Critique of the Discipline of Political Science

Robert F Gorman editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Scarecrow Press

Published:6th Oct '11

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Toward the Common Good cover

Over the course of two millennia, the Catholic Church has served as one of the key institutional influences on the development of political science. Papal writings on the social teachings of the Church and their application to the modern world reflect the important role the Church has played as a political evaluator and social critic of political ideas and realities and the concepts and methods through which we seek to understand them. Toward the Common Good critiques political science from a distinctly Catholic perspective. Essays in this work engage forthrightly with the origins and destiny of humanity and explore—through a Catholic lens—the natural inclination of human beings to aspire toward the attainment of the common good. This book examines how the subfields of political theory, comparative politics, American government, international relations, and public administration draw on foundational connections between moral and political philosophy and political science's natural affinities with history, law, anthropology, sociology, and theology. The contributors assess the quality of contemporary political analysis by applying the Catholic principles of the unity of knowledge and pursuit of truth to the traditional principles of justice, the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity, all in direct contrast to the utilitarian, secularist, materialist, and relativist approaches that dominate political science today. The essays collected here address the question of method in the study of politics—especially the confining effects of regnant behavioralism—and offer in opposition a recovery of political philosophy, the natural law tradition, virtue ethics, and moral realism. Finally, each contributor suggests how the Catholic political scientist can draw upon the truths of the Catholic faith to enter into the study of politics and how that faith influences the kinds of questions and research a Catholic political scientist undertakes.

Toward the Common Good will be useful to both Catholic and non-Catholic scholars. The former will find in it many useful suggestions for how they might integrate the Catholic intellectual tradition into their own professional studies. The latter will learn that there is nothing to be feared and much to be gained from returning once again to the moral realism of which the Church is still the most persistent and persuasive teacher. And for those teachers who wish not only to survey political science as it is currently practiced but also to invite students to critical reflection on its limitations, the book would make a useful addition to the reading list for an undergraduate introduction to political science course or a graduate scope and methods course. * Catholic Social Science Review *

ISBN: 9780810877962

Dimensions: 238mm x 165mm x 18mm

Weight: 422g

194 pages