Comment on resurgence of political theory. (150 words)
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 death declared → premature — what fell was positivist science, not theory.
Route 2 behaviouralism sidelined values → normative theory revives.
Germino: theory “rising from the ashes” → Berlin: survives while rational curiosity lives → Rawls’s A Theory of Justice = the decisive moment → field widens: feminism, multiculturalism, environment, post-colonial.
Not a rejection of empirical science — science supplies the means, philosophy decides the ends.
Route 1 synthesis of facts and values.
Route 2 a rebirth, not a return to old moralism.
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Political Theory — 10 questions in the Vault.
- Comment on decline of political theory. (150 words)
- Comment on Post-Behavioural approach. (150 words)
- Discuss the significance of a normative approach to political theory.
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.