Praxis Seminar Series 2025-26: Session 9

Jonathan Floyd

Bristol University

What is the point of doing ‘methodology’ in political theory?

9 December 2025, 17:15 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Abstract

If we say that a ‘method’ is a general way of pursuing a particular task, and that ‘methodology’ is the study of those general ways, as well as the tasks they aim at, then we can say that any method is a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ method according to whether it helps us achieve the task we are aiming at. Are thought experiments, for example, a productive method of conceptual analysis? Is genealogy a useful method of critique? Is reflective equilibrium a helpful method of justification? And indeed, assuming there are some good methods out there, how should we then think about combining them, given that we rarely only have one task and one method in mind, given our wider aims? Should we, for example, sometimes combine more abstract methods with more concrete ones? More radical with more conservative? More philosophical with more politically engaged, and thus in turn more publicly accessible? In an age in which political theorists are sometimes told they need to be highly specialised publishers, and sometimes that they need to be highly engaged political influencers, getting the right mix of methods, and thus understanding what all those methods are, might turn out to be very important indeed.

 

 

This event is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa