The Structure of Political Theories

Abstract

Political thought, the topic of our essay, can now be reintroduced through a discussion of its components. Political thought deals with the sphere of human society, hence it must be based on some kind of knowledge of society. Now society can be conceived from either one of two points of views : from that of the individual, or from that of the collectivity. None of the two poles can be taken independently of the other, for neither is society merely the contemporaneous existence of independent individuals, nor is it merely the existence of a collective social body. The aspect of the individual, as that of the group must be taken into account. The importance a person attaches to the individual and to the collective factor determines his political standpoint within the two extremes of this necessary polarity. While it may also be held that the maximum well-being of the individual and the group coincide, the political means of attaining this Utopian society follow either by adjusting the existence of the individual to fit the group (the socialist idea) or adjusting the existence of the group to fit the being of the individual (the liberal idea). Political thought concerns society, hence it deals with individual being and with social existence.