Referat Morgenthau - Politics among nations

label Referate autorenew 2025-09-29, 16:57
Whatever the bonds of affection and respect that bind someone to another person, who can claim to understand fully another’s aspirations and experiences, commitments, and intentions that are responsible for a creative act? Nor was Professor Morgenthau particularly helpful in explaining his purpose in writing Politics Among Nations. Regarding his other writings he was more direct. In a collection of his essays in the 1960s, Morgenthau (1970:5) writes "...almost 25 years ago I launched, in Scientific Man vs. Power Politics a frontal attack against faith in the power of truth to move men and in particular statesmen."



His experience of the previous quarter century confirmed his philosophical conclusion that power positions do not generally yield to intellectual arguments. In 1963, in preparing the introduction to the paperback edition of The Purpose of American Politics, Morgenthau (1970: 6) sounded a note of discouragement and foreboding saying "...the domestic changes...which we have been witnessing since the book was written [1960] raised again in a novel and acute way the central issue of American existence: how can the purpose of America be achieved under novel conditions? That issue comprises...mortal dangers and unique opportunities. It puts into question the very existence of America." He explains that his intention had been to address a crisis and years later the signs of the crisis persisted reflecting the shortcomings of the nation’s social and political life at home and abroad. The two books, Scientific Man and The Purpose of American Politics were each intended to analyze fundamental problems of understanding and existence. Not only is a similar reference to Politics Among Nations absent from the text of his 1970 volume but his greatest work is not even referenced in the Index. His purpose in writing Politics was general and comprehensive setting it apart from his other works. Alternatively, he took for granted that any discussion of his philosophy would presuppose that Politics represented the summation of his worldview. It came to be his magnum opus.