Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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Machiavelli cannot talk about how things are in the world without talking about how they should be. In other words, Machiavelli cannot say that he is making an empirical theory of “power” free of normative judgements. My following argument should explain why:
A person would be correct in saying, “ Every study of power inevitably, inherently includes and requires the analyst’s normative judgement explicitly or implicitly.” In order to prove this section, it will be split into three parts. First, I will argue that conceptual definitions are normative. Second, I will argue that power is a conceptual definition. Third, I will argue that it is necessary to have a conceptual definition of power, in order to study power.
Conceptual definitions are normative. Whenever people talk about things like: justice, representation, art, etc..., they have problems because these things are not really physical. They then have to rely on the conceptual and a conceptual definition is essentially a normative definition. For example, think of “art” (the idea) by itself. When you abstract the idea of “art” in this way, you are thinking of what “art” ought to be. The conceptual definition of “art” is basically the normative definition. This is true with the other concepts.
Power is a conceptual definition. We cannot physically touch “power.” It is just as much a concept as “art” is concept. If we try to abstract the idea of “power,” we end up thinking about how power ought to be. The conceptual definition of “power” is the normative definition of “power.”
The conceptual definition of power is required in the study of power. We cannot limit a study, if we do not know what we are studying. If I did not know the conceptual definition of “power,” I would not be able to limit my research. If I decided to exclude things about my research, I would be claiming some conceptual knowledge of “power.” By excluding some of my data, I would be saying what does not fit the idea of “power.” If I do not exclude things form my study, then it will be just as much a study of “power” as it would be a study of “Gummi Bears.” In order for me to limit the study I have to make some appeal to the abstracted conceptual definition of “power,” and then apply it to the real world. As I have shown the abstracted conceptual definition is the same as the normative definition. Therefore, the normative definition of “power” would help to tell me what to exclude or include in my research.