Difference between revisions of "Political theory"
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# '''Political philosophy''': In which one might study, for example, Core Curriculum classics like Locke and Hobbes as well as more recent thinkers like John Rawls. Related areas of study include legal philosophy and moral philosophy. | # '''Political philosophy''': In which one might study, for example, Core Curriculum classics like Locke and Hobbes as well as more recent thinkers like John Rawls. Related areas of study include legal philosophy and moral philosophy. | ||
| − | # '''Formal theory''': In which scholars attempt to develop mathematical models of political science phenomena, e.g. voting behavior. | + | # '''Formal theory''': In which scholars attempt to develop mathematical models of political science phenomena, e.g. voting behavior. This area of study is heavily inspired by the success of formal models in economics, and a lot of the major results are due to scholars like Kenneth Arrow who are known to the wider world primarily as economists. There's a lot of logic and math involved here, and some of its major practitioners at Columbia studied math for at least one of their degrees (e.g. professor [[Jeffrey Lax]]). |
Political theory is not listed as an available subfield on the Columbia College [[Bulletin]], but political science majors can make it one of their subfields if they ask nicely. | Political theory is not listed as an available subfield on the Columbia College [[Bulletin]], but political science majors can make it one of their subfields if they ask nicely. | ||
Revision as of 13:54, 22 February 2009
Political theory is one of the subfields of the Political Science Department. In general, "political theory" can mean one of two related things:
- Political philosophy: In which one might study, for example, Core Curriculum classics like Locke and Hobbes as well as more recent thinkers like John Rawls. Related areas of study include legal philosophy and moral philosophy.
- Formal theory: In which scholars attempt to develop mathematical models of political science phenomena, e.g. voting behavior. This area of study is heavily inspired by the success of formal models in economics, and a lot of the major results are due to scholars like Kenneth Arrow who are known to the wider world primarily as economists. There's a lot of logic and math involved here, and some of its major practitioners at Columbia studied math for at least one of their degrees (e.g. professor Jeffrey Lax).
Political theory is not listed as an available subfield on the Columbia College Bulletin, but political science majors can make it one of their subfields if they ask nicely.
