Toward the Common Good

In Toward the Common Good, experts examine how the subfields of political theory, comparative politics, American government, international relations, and public administration draw on foundational connections between moral and political philosophy and political science’s natural affinities with history, law, anthropology, sociology, and theology. They assess the quality of contemporary political analysis by applying the Catholic principles of the unity of knowledge and pursuit of truth to the traditional principles of justice, the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity, all in direct contrast to the utilitarian, secularist, materialist, and relativist approaches that dominate political science today. The essays collected here address the question of method in the study of politics-especially the confining effects of regnant behavioralism-and offer in opposition a recovery of political philosophy, the natural law tradition, virtue ethics, and moral realism. Finally, each contributor suggests how the Catholic political scientist can draw upon the truths of the Catholic faith to enter into the study of politics and how that faith influences the kinds of questions and research a Catholic political scientist undertakes.