PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE AND IDEOLOGY IN POLITICAL THOUGHT Philosophy, Science and Ideology in Political Thought David Morrice Principal Lecturer in Politics Staffordshire University First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-39925-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37822-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230378223 First published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-16348-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morrice, David, 1951- Philosophy, science, and ideology in political thought/ David Morrice. p. em. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16348-8 (cloth) I. Political science-Philosophy. 2. Ideology. I. Title. JA7l.M67 1996 320'.01-dc20 96-26117 CIP © David Morrice 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-67424-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 To the memory of my mother Contents Preface X 1 The State of Political Theory and the Problem of Ideology 1 Introduction 1 The Death of Political Philosophy Debate 2 The Behavioural Revolution in Political Science 10 The End-of-Ideology Debate 15 The Revival of Political Philosophy 20 The Problem of Ideology: Towards a Solution 23 2 Conceptions of Ideology: The Marxist Tradition 25 Introduction 25 The Origin of Ideology 26 The Genesis of Karl Marx's Theory of Ideology 30 Marx's Theory of Ideology 34 Georg Lukacs: The Doctrine of Proletarian Truth 42 Louis Althusser: The Doctrine of Autonomous Science 46 Conclusion 52 3 Conceptions of Ideology: The Non-Marxist Tradition 53 Introduction 53 Emile Durkheim: Social Science and Ideology 54 Vilfredo Pareto: A Psychological Conception of Ideology 59 Karl Mannheim: From Ideology to the Sociology of Knowledge 63 Michael Oakeshott: Ideology, Science and Philosophy as Modes of Political Thought 69 Conclusion 78 vii Vlll Contents 4 Naturalist Political Science and Political Ideology 81 Introduction 81 Karl Popper: Falsification and the Demarcation of Science and Ideology 84 Imre Lakatos: Science as Human Decisions 89 Thomas Kuhn: Incommensurability and the Problem of Relativism 95 Paul Feyerabend: Science as Ideology 101 Conclusion 105 5 Non-Naturalist and Realist Political Science and Political Ideology 108 Introduction 108 Peter Winch's Non-Naturalist Philosophy of Social Science 110 Criticisms of Winch 115 Roy Bhaskar's Realist Naturalism 122 Conclusion 132 6 A Critique of Value-Free Political Science 134 Introduction 134 The Concept of a Value-Free Political Science 135 Ten Arguments Against Value-Free Political Science 140 Conclusion 159 7 Contemporary Confusion of Political Philosophy and Political Ideology 160 In traduction 160 History and Political Philosophy: Quentin Skinner 161 History and Political Philosophy: Richard Ashcraft 166 Communitarianism: Michael Walzer 169 Postmodernism and Antifoundationalism: Richard Rorty 172 Conclusion 182 Contents ix 8 A Critique of Relativism in Political Thought 183 How Relativism Enters Political Thought 183 The Nature of Relativism 185 Seven Arguments Against Relativism 191 Conclusion 209 9 Demarcating Political Philosophy and Political Ideology 210 Introduction 210 Problems of Demarcating Ideology and Philosophy 211 Five Arguments for the Demarcation of Ideology and Philosophy 217 10 Rational Political Philosophy 234 Introduction 234 Human Nature 236 Practical Reason 243 Political Judgement and Prudence 249 Conclusion 253 Notes 254 Index 300