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Short paper

1. What is political philosophy?

Political philosophy is difficult to define precisely due to its

contestable nature over the centuries. The best general way to define

it in my opinion is that political philosophy is the rationalistic, value

driven approach concerning how we are governed and in what ways

we should be governed.

2. What is the subject matter of political philosophy?

The subject matter of political philosophy are the three overarching

issues that this field tries to address. The first issue is that of the

relationship between the ruled and the ruler, the second is the conflict

between different groups in a multicultural society and the third are

the objectives of political action.

3. What is the political in political philosophy?

The political in political philosophy refers to the state of affairs

wherein the various parts of the given political system are working

harmoniously with one another, thus allowing said political system to

operate in an effective manner.

4. What is the language of political philosophy?

The language of political philosophy is the jargon that is used by this

field to express its ideas. The language of political philosophy differs

from that of other fields in that it lacks the precision of other fields

due to the contestable nature of political philosophy alongside the fact

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that that the terminology used by this field is often used in everyday

life.

5. What is the role of vision and imagination in political philosophy?

Vision is the goal of restructuring politics in the future in a way that is

be seen be ideal from a certain point of view. The role of vision in

political philosophy is that of giving it its normative nature.

Imagination plays two roles in political philosophy. The first is that it

is a useful way to illustrate a meaningful point that the philosopher is

trying to make in a manner that is easy to understand and the second

more important use is that it is needed to facilitate the construction of

the new models that form the basis of vision in the first place.

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