Lexington Books
Pages: 214
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛
978-1-7936-0331-9 • Hardback • April 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-7936-0332-6 • eBook • April 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
Stuart Weierter is senior statistician at Queensland State Government
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Truth, Politics, and Public Policy
Chapter 3: Harold Lasswell and the Possibility of Political Science
Chapter 4: John Dewey’s Politics of Poetic Craftsmanship
Chapter 5: Rationality in Action: Max Weber’s Political Science
Chapter 6: Hegel’s Resolution
Chapter 7: Self-Knowledge and the Everyday
Chapter 8: Conclusion – Theory in Practice
A bold, philosophically nuanced account of what is truly at stake in the ‘perennial problem’ of truth and politics. Negatively, the book demonstrates that modern executive attempts to resolve the problem by allying politics with ‘impartial’ social science necessarily fails; positively, it delineates (via an analysis of key thinkers – Lasswell, Dewey, Weber and Hegel) a path toward adequate resolution. Weierter argues we must turn from the abstract ‘truths’ of social scientific ‘theory’ toward philosophical understanding of the ‘everyday’ in which all, including policy-makers, are necessarily embedded. A challenging book recommended for anyone interested in the enduring conundrum of good policy-making.
— John Kane, Griffith University