History of Western Political Thought. Volume 4

Author: Xu Datong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: This volume is divided into two parts based on the forms of capitalist development, primarily studying the evolution of Western political thought from the early 19th century to World War II. It focuses on introducing the political thought of figures such as Bentham, James Mill, Humboldt, Constant, Tocqueville, Hegel, Comte, Spencer, Dicey, John Stuart Mill, Marx and Engels, Green, Hobhouse, Bosanquet, Hobson, Russell, Wilson, Goodnow, Dewey, Nietzsche, and Mosca. The inheritance, critique, and transcendence of bourgeois thought during the bourgeois revolutionary period are the themes of various political ideas at this time; liberalism remained active throughout the period, establishing its dominant position in Western political thought. Conservatism, social democracy, irrationalism, and fascism were also highly active, and political thought became more diversified. Marxism proposed a class analysis method for studying political phenomena, exploring the nature of the state and initiating a great transformation in human political concepts. Political thought became more practical, with the interpretation of political systems and social issues shifting from "ought to be" to "is," a prominent manifestation being the widespread dissemination of positivism and the continuous development of pragmatism and behaviorism.