is the way weshouldlook at the world if we are to be saved. It is no accident nor, as is
sometimes said, is it inconsistent with his views that Marx should have proclaimed,“the
philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point however is tochangeit.”^18Many knowledge-seeking theorists share the conviction that a more scientific or historical inquiry
into politics (or a synthesis of both) will get us closer to realizing what human beings value, and
ought to value. Facts and hope will somehow coincide.
All of this illustrates that the distinction between these two approaches in political theory, the
normative and the empirical, is never that sharp. Spitz was quite right to point out that just as“few if
any normative theories are devoid of empirical statements and historical assessments,”it is also true
that“few if any empirical theories can avoid normative assumptions and value statements.”Spitz
then added,“what is crucial in all these endeavors is not the approach the theorist takes but the
enlightenment his theory yields.”^19 Nor is the third approach in political theory, the analytic
approach, bereft of value judgments or void of empirical statements. And like the other two
approaches to political inquiry, it too should be judged by the enlightenment its practitioners yield.
The Analytic Approach: The Political Theorist As Critic
Today it is not the justice-seeking or knowledge-seeking approach associated with Plato, Aristotle,
Machiavelli, Hobbes, Marx and other canonical thinkers, but rather the analytic or critical approach
that has become synonymous withcontemporarypolitical theory. The analytical approach is fre-
quently associated with“the styles, methods and purposes of Anglo-American analytical moral
philosophy which developed from the works of Hume, Russell and Wittgenstein.”^20 Many notable
political thinkers–including Isaiah Berlin, Hannah Pitkin, John Gunnell–employ some variation
of this approach. Although each brings to the discipline of political theory a distinct perspective,
these political theorists are primarily interested in critically examining foundational theories based
upon universal rationality, divine will, utility, or natural law. They focus attention not only on the
ways in which political theorists have reified notions of“self-interest”and“rationality,”but also on
commentators who routinely associate the use of these particular concepts with another reified,
analytical construct:“the modern tradition”of political theory.^21 Rather than exploring the real
meaning of justice or truth, these analytical thinkers prefer to dissect the forms of reasoning,
methods of inquiry, and conclusions found in political theories, including the self-evident moral
assertions or universal prescriptions often cloaked in the garb of“realism.”
Of particular interest to the analytical thinker is the nature of the questions political theorists have
raised and attempted to answer. From an analytical perspective, the questions posed by political
thinkers, e.g., what is justice, what is freedom, what constitutes rational conduct and a meaningful
social existence are curious and perplexing because, according to Berlin, they do not appear to have
a clear source for finding the answers,“no deductive or observational programme leads at all
directly to their solution.”^22 He and other analytical thinkers agree with Russell’s observation, that
political theory–like its cousin philosophy:
is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite
answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves;
because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual
imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against
speculation:::^23It is by making us aware of the perplexing nature of such questions as“what is justice?”that gives
the study of political thought value and purpose. Consequently, analytical political theory has
become nearly synonymous with textual analysis, concerned particularly with the ways in which
158 Ramona June Grey