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Webster's dictionary defines philosophy as the rational study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy helps understand terms and concepts that are more than one word answers and situations, and gives insight to possible future circumstances. These effects still apply to political philosophy, instead these efforts are directed to a nation's government, and how it cooperates with its people to achieve an absolute ideal world to the best of its ability.
What is it?
What is it?
Political philosophy heavily relies on contextualism, meaning that to understand it, the time, place, and culture all deeply influence how it should be perceived. All these things are constantly changing; therefore, many political philosophical theories are too. It is not a stagnant philosophy subject by any means, and may be one of the most that is prone to changing. Humans are constantly evolving in their beliefs, passions, and values, so naturally this affects the philosophy of how they rule as well. It helps conduct with the political way of life necessary to continue and what should be stopped for the better. It is used as an intellectual discipline, separated by emotions and experiences and rather looked at from a rational perspective. However, since morality and politics can be subjective, it’s difficult to uphold that rule (Arneson, 2026).
Political Philosophy vs Political Science
Political Philosophy vs Political Science
The term political philosophy is not seen without its counterpart, political science. Though these two things may sound similar they are used for different purposes to help connect each other. Compared to political philosophy, which uses ethics and logic to determine which governmental methods should be used, political science is more reliant on statistical methods to define what a policy operates and how it works (Trepanier). Political science is used to help with coming up with political philosophical theories. Using the preference data and results from how a previous governmental system worked and its affects, this can help philosophers determine what systems should, and should not be used going forth in the future. Learning from past mistakes that previous fallen nations have made is one of the best ways to improve and move forward as a society, and to help future generations. In simpler terms, political philosophy provides goals and levels to strive for, whereas political science is used as a tool to help achieve such goals. Political philosophy would not be without political science, as they work together to succeed. The latter provides the results and instructions needed of what steps to avoid and take for a better future (Trepanier, 2019).
Aristotle
Aristotle
Any philosophy field is not without some of their most notable philosophers. One of the most well known of this topic would be Aristotle. Aristotle's influence is very notable in western government, laying the foundational groundwork for many countries today, including the United States. Aristotle's political theories stated politics should allow mastery and brilliance of the people, stating that the government must be moral in order to make this happen. The state and government are responsible for setting an environment that allows many different education, arts, sciences, and religions to flourish (Alida, 2026). Though Aristotle is well known, he is still seen as a controversial figure for many of his takes, and his morality is still discussed by philosophers. Alida, student at Dumont New Jersey, also talks about his controversial book Politics, where he expresses his opinion on some humans being “natural slaves”. This view and ideology was commonly used by anti-abolitionalists and slave owners. This type of mindset also reinforced caste systems and serfs as well. As seen here, Aristotle's words and plans have been used for both dark periods of history as well building up a bright future, showing just how much political philosophy views can change, even from the most influential people that we may still use today.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Another noteworthy philosopher that has made a mark on the field of political philosophy is Karl Marx. His theories are focused on class struggles, specifically between the upper and working class. He also made a revolutionary change as to how human morality was viewed as well. Compared to the popular Christian viewpoint at the time, which is the christian doctrine of sin, believing humans are all born with a “sin nature.” Karl Marx disagreed with this popular notion at the time. He believed when humans are born, they are pure, inclined toward goodness, and the environment shapes a person's misdeeds (Lai, 2020). Marx had a condemning attitude towards categorized human nature, he believed self-realization was the key to a better, completely classless society. Although he made his disdain of capitalism very clear, his writings on politics, labor, and class struggle still heavily influenced current day American Politics, especially the United States Labour movement. Marx’s views on humanity and morality differed from the norm as he believed explaining history from concepts such as “justice” was too vague. Since humans and conflict are abstract, individuals should be taken as the standard to compare rather than concepts that are not possible to completely meet (Scientific Research Publishing, 2026). This shows Marx’s complex view and way of thinking through complicated problems. Rather than labeling something as wrong, or right, he prefers to look at everything in a more nuanced way. This has also helped America’s court system of looking at the context of situations to determine the extent of a punishment. Karl Marx believed in internationalism, meaning he deeply advocated for different nations to cooperate and made his stances clear on this matter. He did not agree with people of similar cultures strictly sticking together as this caused division and barriers among people. Although Karl Marx would be opposed to the capitalist governing ways of the United States, there is no doubt he has provided much help to establishing the countries policies as they are now
Shortcomings and Consensus
Shortcomings and Consensus
Though political philosophy is a helpful framework to determine how to evaluate powers and design ethical systems, it isn’t perfect. It focuses on an ideal world, which fails to truly help fix real world issues of injustices. It provides equal fair systems, but not necessarily how to achieve them. For these reasons is why political philosophy is inherently considered incomplete (Sueyoshi, 2018). Any philosophy that deals with an evolving topic cannot be complete as to research them one would need a baseline to start from, which is often vague. These vague ideals and values offer broad human characteristics, whereas humans are much more complex than “good” and “bad”. When debating any subjective arguments, many pit stops can occur. However, many political philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Rawls have agreed there are some topics that have a consensus agreement when it comes to this field:
People of a nation must give up some freedoms in order for protection from the government
Because ultimate agreement is impossible in a large population, unanimous votes are to be the deciding factor
Citizens have a duty to obey agreements with their nation to maintain a well balanced relationship (Aderbridge, 2015).
Significane of Political Philosophy
Significane of Political Philosophy
Ultimately, political philosophy is a tool to determine future steps to take in a government to achieve the best results of an ideal world. Since it is an incomplete philosophy, it is important to be relevant in the information and statistics it uses, political science helps with this process. It is important to use past events and fallen nations as a lesson of what to do moving forward. Political philosophy gives a blueprint of what that future should look like.
Sources (APA)
Sources (APA)
Benjamin, M. (n.d.). The value of consensus - society’s choices - NCBI bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231961/
Bowle, J. E. (n.d.). Political philosophy | definition, history, theories, & facts | britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-philosophy
Lai, T. (2026). The basic characteristics of Marx’s political philosophy. https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=102403
Sueyoshi, K. C. (2018, April 30). Five limitations: Political Science applied to the non-west – global politics review. https://globalpoliticsreview.com/2464-9929_v04_i01_p078/
The Internet Classics Archive | Politics by Aristotle, classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.html. Accessed 18 June 2026.
Trepanier, L. (2019, August 19). The relevance of political philosophy and Political Science. VoegelinView. https://voegelinview.com/the-relevance-of-political-philosophy-and-political-science/
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