From Political History to Political Studies: A Brief Introduction to Political History and Political Science History

Abstract

In Metapolitics, Alain Badiouclaimsthat there is no philosophy of any kind, inclusive of philosophy of politics, existing prior to politics. This is the prime purpose of our brief introduction to political science history. We cannot ignore the historical text of political science when exploring the philosophy of politics. “Transcendence” and “immanence”, these two important approaches of philosophy, co-exist in the history of thoughts. By transcendence it refers to the exploration of the universal truth; by immanence it is the truth self-owned by general people. Philosophy gives attention for the first time to modern people in Kant’s What is Enlightenment. In this essay, what we see is not a definition of human in universal historical context, as is discussed in “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think, therefore I am) paradigm of discourse by Descartes. It is an important events in academic exploration of human’s immanence, as the historical identity of human as the subject of knowledge is highlighted in academic history in a formal manner and then presented to later generations.