Just Finished Reading: Political Philosophy – A Beginners’ Guide for Students and Politicians by Adam Swift (FP: 2006)

This is another step in my effort to have a better grounding and better understanding of politics – especially after the recent ‘shock’ of trying, and after great concentration and effort succeeding I hope, to understand a work of contemporary political philosophy.

I actually liked the authors approach very much. He sets out to deconstruct what politicians say on various topics in order to tease out what they actually mean (or could mean) if they were speaking with philosophical clarity – which, for various reasons, they tend not to. He often started with a stance or typical politicians statement about, for example Social Justice, and then took a step back asking what they meant and then proceeded to discuss modern thought on the topic whilst, where required, a bit of historical context. The topics covered are those you’d probably expect from such a work – Social Justice (already alluded to), Liberty, Equality, Community and the biggie, Democracy.

Under Social Justice he discussed the views of Hayek, Rawls and Nozick. Under Liberty he discussed 3 distinctions between conceptions of liberty and different ideas of Freedom. Under Equality he discussed opportunity, relative equalities (are gaps important or not) and positional goods. For a change of emphasis under Community he attempted to answer 7 main objections to the Liberal view of the State. Finally under Democracy he outlined the different types or degrees of Democracy and inquired into its values.

Although a little dry and academic in places, which is not difficult given the subject matter, this was still a very readable volume full of whit, humour and an ability to get to the heart of ideas without the use of too much jargon or assumed knowledge. As introductions go this was a pretty good one. I think I understand some of the underlying foundations of the main topics more than previously so I guess it was certainly a success from my point of view. I didn’t find myself disagreeing with his views too often but that didn’t make his arguments boring in the least. If you do find yourself struggling with what politicians in particular mean, or want you to hear, when they open their mouths this is definitely the book for you. When they use words like Community or Justice or even Democracy itself you’ll be able to form meaningful questions in your mind and more easily analyse exactly what they’re trying to get across to you in order to get your vote. Such knowledge is (or should be) highly valued in a world of sound bites and difficult decisions. Arm yourself with this book and others like it. Knowledge is indeed power!