Reasons and practices of reasoning: On the analytic/Continental distinction in political philosophy

Abstract

This essay argues that whereas ‘analytic’ political philosophy is focussed on generating reasons that are oriented to the issue of articulating norms of justice, legitimacy and so on, that guide political judgements about institutions and/or forms of conduct; ‘Continental’ political philosophy is oriented to critically assessing the practices of reasoning that characterise our social and political institutions and forms of conduct as well as our first-order normative reflection on them. It explores the distinction between the two orientations in terms of, what are called, their ‘structural problematics’: the guidance problem and the critique problem, before considering briefly ways in which they may be combined.