Abstract
This article attempts to study the problem of the influence of irrational factors on politics and its reflection in the space of socio-political thought. Having started by identifying theoretical models of understanding the irrational in politics, the author fixes the theoretical and methodological framework, which is used by default when mastering the subject, and subsequently wonders: how else can the irrational be included in the sphere of political analysis and modelling? The author uses the texts of ancient Greek thinkers as the starting point. On their basis she reconstructs the basic set of approaches that form a conventional model to understand the role of the irrational in politics, and then highlights several features of the ancient discourse about the irrational. Firstly, this is the generative and teleological function of the irrational in connection with political reality: ancient thinkers primarily associated with irrational principles such matters as the origin of wars, power, law and the state, as well as the goals of political development. Secondly, the irrational factor limits the space of political subjectivity and, more specifically, free choice for a person and a citizen, because it is in the irrational field that the “last argument” is located. Thirdly, this is the trend towards the transition from metaphysics to psychology. Further analysis shows that this theoretical trajectory is preserved and consolidated within the framework of Western European political science discourse. Having established that the ancient Greek model of understanding the irrational is reproduced not only in discourse but also in practice, the author formulates an important question for political science: how productive are reflections that derive recommendations for socio-political coexistence from certain psychological human qualities or arbitrarily interpreted divine revelations? — and thereby invites the scientific community to revise classical approaches and to have an active dialogue within the topic. She proposes the concept of parallel discourses — verbal and non-verbal — as an alternative theoretical and methodological framework for the scientific study of irrational factors in politics.
Published Version
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More From: The Journal of Political Theory, Political Philosophy and Sociology of Politics Politeia
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