History and Self-Identity
Why do I read political theory?
Once, a student of mine asked me why should we study history, adding that no teacher had ever given him an answer he liked. I told him that since the society we live in shapes us, and our childhood (how we reached who we are), is a part of us, that is to say, the road is just as important as the destination. Thus, how and why our society arrived at its present state is also part of who we are.
I am a citizen. As I received my college education for virtually nothing, on account of government policies, this is not theory. What does it mean to be a citizen? Under what laws? Why were these laws written? What was the purpose of them then? What of them now?
It is not only political theory I study, but the evolution of it. How and why it arrived at its present states. And as I told Pontia recently, the study of political theory cannot be divorced from the study of History. All theories are written for their own times.
Once, a student of mine asked me why should we study history, adding that no teacher had ever given him an answer he liked. I told him that since the society we live in shapes us, and our childhood (how we reached who we are), is a part of us, that is to say, the road is just as important as the destination. Thus, how and why our society arrived at its present state is also part of who we are.
I am a citizen. As I received my college education for virtually nothing, on account of government policies, this is not theory. What does it mean to be a citizen? Under what laws? Why were these laws written? What was the purpose of them then? What of them now?
It is not only political theory I study, but the evolution of it. How and why it arrived at its present states. And as I told Pontia recently, the study of political theory cannot be divorced from the study of History. All theories are written for their own times.