Contextualism vs Non-Contextualism in political philosophy : a contribution to the debate on criticism in the political sciences

Abstract

The author’s aim is to analyse the problem of criticism in the context of political sciences, in particular in the context of political philosophy. The issue is considered in the light of two basic epistemological standpoints: contextualism and presentism. These two approaches are often regarded as mutually exclusive; however, the author presents arguments for their possible complementarity and demonstrates that their concurrence is the necessary point of departure for critical attitudes in political philosophy.