Conventional realism and political inquiry : channeling Wittgenstein /

In his new book, Gunnell (emer., State Univ. of New York, Albany) targets two "phantoms" that have haunted political science in the US. The first is realism--the idea that there is a real world our words and ideas correspond to more or less well. The second is mentalism--the idea that words and ideas reflect states or phenomena of our mind. As Gunnell argues, the alternative to both is conventionalism, the idea that all human activity takes place within what Wittgenstein called a "form of life" made up of words, ideas, and what we do with them. The point is not to deny the existence of a world or our minds, but rather to understand that every theory about such things is what Gunnell calls a "presentation" of a (necessarily unprovable) view about reality, not a "representation" of its underlying, independent facts. Echoing his influential earlier work, Social Inquiry after Wittgenstein & Kuhn (CH, Jun'15, 52-5592), Gunnell shows how these phantoms came to dominate American political science, deftly summarizing much of 20th-century philosophy in the process, and he rebuts the widespread but false idea that conventionalism necessarily entails moral relativism. Possibly of interest to advanced undergraduates, this text will surely attract established and budding scholars of political science, political theory, and philosophy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, researchers. --Matthew J Moore, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo