Description:
This edited book explores the relationship between political expertise, which is defined as "scientific statesmanship or governance," and political leadership throughout the history of ideas. An outstanding group of experts study and analyze the ideas of significant philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Kant, Burke, Comte, and Weber, among others. The contributors aim to interpret these thinkers' approaches to "scientific statesmanship," deepening our understanding of the idea itself and decoding its theoretical complexities.
Review Quotes:
"These original essays by distinguished scholars derive their common focus from the political thought of antiquity but embrace both ancient and modern thought from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to Machiavelli, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Burke, and Max Weber (among others). The notion of scientific statesmanship brings together the idea of science or philosophy with that of practical politics and raises for the serious student of political thought important questions concerning the nature of the human condition itself."--Frederick Rosen, University College London, UK