Mind and Political Concepts

Mind and Political Concepts provides a descriptive account of the Conceptual Method as applied to Political Philosophy. The starting point of this six-chapter book is the analysis of the notions of psychological coercion and of social coercion and on the basis of this analysis to evolve a notion of political obligation. The first three chapters cover the three classical political philosophies: Plato's philosophical method and its influence in fixing the realm of inquiry of the political order, the structure of human behavior, science versus dialectic; Hobbes' scientific conceptual method; and Rousseau unphilosophical analysis of human nature and the state. The succeeding chapter describes the structure of a political theory. A chapter focuses on the concept of scientific psychology as the ultimate principle. The final chapter is devoted to the analysis of the notion of participation as the kind of active or passive part taken by social men, statesmen, journalists, and philosophers in the political continuum. This book will be of value to the non-specialists who are interested in political structure and psychology.