Behaviour and Thoughts: For a Pluralistic Model of Empirically Informed Political Philosophy
| Published date | 01 August 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231163469 |
| Author | Alice Baderin |
| Date | 01 August 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Symposium: “Do Actions Speak Louder Than Thoughts? Normative Behaviourism Reconsidered” |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231163469
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(3) 476 –482
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299231163469
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Behaviour and Thoughts: For a
Pluralistic Model of Empirically
Informed Political Philosophy
Alice Baderin
Abstract
Is Political Philosophy Impossible? develops a distinctive and powerful vision of empirically informed
political philosophy: one that gives a central role to data about what people do, rather than what
they think or say. Here, I offer some critical reflections on this ‘normative behaviourist’ account
of how, and why, we should integrate normative theorizing with empirical research. I suggest
that normative behaviourism is at once too ambitious and too restrictive concerning the role of
social scientific data in political philosophy. On the one hand, it implicates philosophy in complex
and contested issues in criminology, and developing the approach to address more fine-grained
normative problems would place unrealistic demands on the empirical data. On the other hand,
the emphasis on crime and insurrection excludes alternative valuable forms of empirical evidence
from normative theorizing. I conclude by defending a more modest and pluralistic picture of data-
sensitive political philosophy.
Keywords
normative behaviourism, methods, political philosophy, social science
Accepted: 22 February 2023
Introduction
Political philosophers ask how we ought to organize our political lives. In Floyd’s (2017:
6) terms, the discipline’s ‘organizing question’ is ‘how should we live?’.1 To generate
meaningful and convincing answers to this question, he contends, we must go beyond
standard methods of armchair philosophy and investigate patterns in citizens’ real-world
behaviour. The first move in this argument involves a critique of the dominant approach
to political philosophy that Floyd terms ‘mentalism’. Political philosophers, he maintains,
have tried and failed to justify answers to the organizing question by looking for patterns
in our thoughts. We disagree too much, within and between ourselves, to reach convinc-
ing and reasonably determinate conclusions by systematizing our normative judgements.
University of Reading, Reading, UK
Corresponding author:
Alice Baderin, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Reading, 293 Edith Morley
Building, Shinfield Road, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6EL UK.
Email: a.baderin@reading.ac.uk
1163469PSW0010.1177/14789299231163469Political Studies ReviewBaderin
research-article2023
Symposia and New Idea
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