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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Journal | Volume | Article

173821

The necessity of a non-reductionist science of politics

James W. Skillen

pp. 95-106

Abstract

The major tendency within the discipline of political science has been to try to achieve a science modeled on the natural sciences and mathematics, following the pattern of other social sciences. This tendency has led to many reductionistic efforts to explain political behavior in terms of one or more functions, such as power, linguistic, psychical, or the economic. The institutional community of government and citizens—the political community or state—is thus overlooked or reduced to one or more functions. In critique of this tendency, this paper shows how the work on entities and functions by the Dutch legal philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd illumines the errors of reductionism and points the way to a multi-functional entity science of the political community.

Publication details

Published in:

Clouser Roy (2010) Philosophy and science in the thought of Herman Dooyeweerd. Axiomathes 20 (1).

Pages: 95-106

Full citation:

Skillen James W. (2010) „The necessity of a non-reductionist science of politics“. Axiomathes 20 (1), 95–106.