Political Theory Flashcards
Post-structuralism
A political and philosophical theory emphasizing the fluid nature of words and phrases, suggests meanings are not static or objective.
Post-industrialism
A stage of contemporary social and economic development showing a shift from industry-centered economies to service-centered economies.
Empirical Political Theory
A branch of political theory that focuses on understanding political phenomena through the ‘scientific method’.
Normative Political Theory
A branch of political theory that focuses on the theoritical aspects of politics, it primarily approaches ‘should be’ questions.
Logical positivism
Also called ‘neo-positivism’, it emphasis the importance of empirical verification and logical analysis.
Metaphysics
A philosophical theory that attempts to explain reality and existence from a theoretical, normative, perspective.
Communitarianism
A social and philosophical theory that emphasizes the importance of community in shaping identity and norms, opposed to individualism.
Post-modernism
A movement away from modernism towards post-modernism with the ‘Information Age’ and pluralism due to globalizations increase of diversity.
Modernism
The belief in a ‘modern’ society centered around industrialization, class solidarity, Enlightenment ideals and objectivity of truths.
Pluralism
The belief that there is no singular, objective truth and instead in the diversity and subjectivity of truth dependent on context, time and the individual.
Foundationalism
The belief that there are set ‘rights and wrongs’ that are objective and as such don’t require justification, opposed to pluralism.
Monism
The philosophical belief that everything (reality) stems from a singularity be it the cosmos or a god.
Existence Monism
A branch of monism that argues that everything comes from the cosmos.
Priority Monism
A branch of monism arguing that while multiple objects exist there is one singularity from which everything was formed.
Idealist Monism
A branch of monism arguing everything is mental or spiritual.
