Political Realism and Wisdom

In European-American culture the tension between "what there is" and "what there should be" has been a constant source of political action. In the interest of becoming more "scientific," modern political science increasingly fails to recognize that power is interpersonal, not institutional. Arguing against the current mainstream thought, András Lánczi contributes to the recently renewed interest in political realism by suggesting we return to the basic understanding of politics: power and political action. The modern bias towards democracy has become fundamental, or to put it differently, democracy is a political religion today. This result from the confusion of two different realms of life: the realm of manners, the written and unwritten rules how we should live our lives, and the methods we apply when we wish to understand political matters scientifically. Lánczi shows how the distinction must be sharply drawn between norms of morals and manners, and those of scholarly inquiries.

András Lánczi is a political philosopher and Director of the Institute of Political Science and Philosophy at Corvinus University, USA, Budapest. Among his books published in Hungarian are On Political Knowledge, Fate-legacy, Tradition and Modernity in Leo Strauss's Political Philosophy, Democracy and Political Science, Political Philosophy of the 20th Century. He is also active in the revival of the Hungarian and European conservative political thought.

1. What is Political Realism?
2. The Moral Foundations of Today's Democracies: Rationality, Faith and Realism in Politics
3. Intellectuals, Cynicism and Reality
4. Evil and History
5. Love of Wisdom – Crisis of Philosophy. Rifts in Western Culture.
6. Manners and Laws: Could a Global State be a Republic?
7. Leo Strauss – a Political Realist
8. Conclusion, or when Face-book is your only friend