Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Modern Idea of the State: Authorized Translation With an Introduction
The value of the more general and abstract efforts of political theory, of what may perhaps be called the philosophy of the state, is often questioned. It is urged on the one hand that the true science of politics cannot go beyond the study of the actual organization of government and of its relations to other social and economic institutions. On the other hand, it is asserted that political philosophy, because it is necessarily a priori in method, cannot do more than ring the changes on certain fundamental types of theory which were stated once for all in the far-distant past. Thus, for example, Professor Dunning in his recent book on Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer says, "Greek Thought on this problem [the justification of authority and submission] in the fourth and third centuries before Christ included substantially all the solutions ever suggested.") Nevertheless, with some ups and downs, political philosophy goes on; it is one of those subjects of permanent human interest which, whether "scientific" or not, men are not likely to abandon. To be sure, it does at times degenerate into an apology for special interests in their endless struggle for power. This danger can scarcely be avoided when men undertake to weigh values and to estimate the importance of tendencies that have not yet eventuated in political fact. But notwithstanding this danger, the criticism of principles is indispensable. The notion that political theory can be reduced strictly to an analysis and summation of accomplished political facts is really idle. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
