The Importance Of The Political Philosophy For The State And Society Essay

The Importance Of The Political Philosophy For The State And Society - Essay Example States have long used enemies as a justification for their existence (IE population will support them for supposed protection from an enemy). Hardt and Negri’s book Empire, argues that the modern state has shifted its definition of the enemy from traditional ones, such as ideology (IE Communism) or state (for instance during European wars), to a violator of law - states manufacture the enemy as a sort of criminal (83). States have thus maneuvered themselves into a situation where any opposition to the state represents a deviant nature and something that the state has an obligation to address. In Hardt and Negri’s understanding, the enemies of the state are no longer extramural – they are in fact by definition within the state, a part of the state structure. This differs from classical neoliberal understandings of Empire, which address Empire building through expansion beyond borders, especially in an economic sense. In interpreting the quotation â€Å"Hitherto the philosophers have only interpreted the world: the point, however, is to transform it,† it is important to remember the origin of philosophy as a tradition of knowledge. Philosophy started as a form of ancient science – before standards of experimentation, testability and so on were developed, philosophers attempted to use reason to form a better understanding of the world around them. Modern science has since taken up much of the challenge of interpreting the world, by using a structured system of logic and experimentation to build causal relationships between physical phenomenon. Science has thus continually eroded the traditional realm of philosophy, especially once it started addressing the state of the human mind through neuroscience.