Zoltán Gábor Szűcs's new article about the a-theoretical core of political realism was published online in Studies in Social and Political Thought.

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Zoltán Gábor Szűcs's new article about Aristotle's realist regime theory was published online in European Journal of Political Theory.

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Attila Gyulai's new article about Carl Schmitt and the autonomy of politics is published in latest issue of Theoria (155)!

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Zoltán Balázs's new book, The Principle of the Separation of Powers: A Defense was recently released by the publisher. 

Congratulations to the author!

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Latest posts

Impish abstracts 1

Impish abstracts 1

DISCLAIMER: The aim of this series of short comments is to present the basic ideas of papers discussing the problems of political realism in a humorous form. My choice of a sarcastic tone is not intended to harm anyone's feelings, only to make the comments more accessible.

Sebastian Nye: Real Politics and Metaethical Baggage (Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2015, 18:1083-1100)

Political action in realist theory

Political action in realist theory

Political action is an elusive phenomenon. It is often connected to various "god terms" in realist political theory, such as charisma (Weber), creativity (Schabert), or judgement (Dunn). These concepts are often taken to explain everything, while cannot be further interrogated themselves. My aim is to map and contribute to new realist attempts that try to conceptualize political action beyond these boundaries. At the moment I work on the ethical aspect of my thesis, focusing on contemporary realist ways of finding a middle way between political moralism and pure consequentialist analysis of political action, for example through virtue ethics (as done by Andrew Sabl in an Aristotelian, and by Mark Philp in a Machiavellian way).

After the realist turn in Hungarian political thought

After the realist turn in Hungarian political thought

My task in this Module is to concentrate on the changing interpretation of the term “politics” in Hungarian academic textbooks and monographs. To grasp the various terms applied to “politics” and to successfully categorize them in the spirit of finding the traces and qualities of Hungarian Realist ideas, I focus on a wider range of concepts and context: I examine their elaborating viewpoints on Political Science, history, democracy and their applied terms like “sovereignty”, “power”, “rule”, “order” or “state”.

Liberalism vs. Realism: the Hungarian perspective

Liberalism vs. Realism: the Hungarian perspective

Besides the research of the comparative module of our project, I pore over the political theory of modus vivendi. As some of its theorists have already expressed, modus vivendi theory is intent on balancing between Rawlsian constructivist and morality-laden liberalism and a kind of Hobbesian perspective of the anthropology of “real world politics”. John Gray, one of the promoters of realist liberalism, recommends a neo-Hobbesian way of social coexistence which is undeniably less ambitious than Kant-based liberalisms. Being a post-liberal (or post-Enlightenment) theory, modus vivendi is more a practice-oriented and open-ended theory than philosophical constructions based on high morality. At the same time, as Gray writes, modus vivendi is not the theory of “anything goes”, and it is necessary to have a solid political foundation of social co-existence.

Did the Rawls of Political liberalism become a realist?

Did the Rawls of Political liberalism become a realist?

The topic of my thesis was John Rawls, whose political philosophy has been considered the utmost rival by political realist thinkers. Thus, within the project I work with the critical module, which primarily focuses on the dispute between Political Realism and Political Moralism. My research includes finding out whether or not Rawls responded to the realist critiques received, and if the theorist did respond what were his answers.

Latest news

A paper accepted to Mancept 2016!

A paper accepted to Mancept 2016!

Zoltán Gábor Szűcs's paper (Why and how an analogy between fiction and realist political theory can widen our horizon?) was accepted to a MANCEPT 2016 workshop: Embracing plurality, learning through practice: How to do realism in political theory today? (organizers: Janosch Prinz and Irene Vanini).

Paper submission accepted!

Paper submission accepted!

Tibor Mándi's paper (The morality of political realism) was accepted to Realist Political Theory panel (chaired by Keith Dowding) at the ECPR General Conference (Prague, 2016).

Good news! Congratulations, Tibor!