| ID | 168500 |
| Title Proper | Karl Mannheim and the liberal telos of realism |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Hvidsten, Andreas H |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The renaissance of classical realism in International Relations (IR) has highlighted the close historical and conceptual connection between realism and liberalism. In this essay, I consider an underexplored epistemological dimension of this connection using Karl Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia – an influential work for classical IR realists and an important treatise on political theory in its own right. Based on Mannheim’s argument, I make the case that (a certain kind of) liberalism is the telos of (a certain kind of) realism: that the natural endpoint of the inherent logic of realism is a form of liberalism. I argue that completing the epistemological and political critique that leads to realism by also putting the realist position itself under (self-)examination, unearths a liberal outlook as its foundation. Explicating this dialectic adds a new dimension to the many other points of contact between realism and liberalism that have been explored by IR scholars in recent years, and it provides a new link between this scholarship and the literature on the epistemological foundations of classical realism. Finally, the essay is an argument for a closer engagement with Mannheim in an IR context, both as a philosopher of knowledge and as a political thinker. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Relations Vol. 33, No.3; Sep 2019: p.475-493 |
| Journal Source | International Relations Vol: 33 No 3 |
| Key Words | Liberalism ; Realism ; Dialectic ; Mannheim |