PHIL2634 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Kenneth Arrow, Social Choice Theory, Political Philosophy
Document Summary
After 1945, the need for a social and intellectual reconstruction of europe was urgent. Anything associated with right-wing racist ideology was publicly disavowed. Institutions like the european union which were designed to prevent future wars between european powers were created (beginning as the european economic community). The war also meant europe giving up its claims to intellectual leadership. The usa in particular benefited from a major wave of german academics. The mathematics of political decision making had first been studied in france as long ago as the late 1700s, and in england david hume had argued for the effort to identify timeless, permanent principles at work in politics. However, it was only in the mid-twentieth century that this desire was systematically linked to the use of statistical methods. The rise of political science meant a major change in the status of philosophy as a way of understanding politics.
