"Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
May 23, 2011 at 9:58pm
Our member katievs brought up Bismarck's remark: "Politics is the art of the possible." That reminded me of a question I once found upon opening up a final exam booklet:
"Politics is the art of the possible. Discuss."
The subject was "General History." How would you answer? (I didn't answer: Students had a choice of questions; I went with "The history of the world is but the biography of great men: Discuss.")
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Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
I know the first comment in a thread shouldn't be off-subject, but--well, what the heck. I have nothing to say about "politics as the art of the possible," but I too can remember, verbatim, an exam question--two, come to think of it--that I came across at Oxford. (In my case, I was rifling through old exam books in philosophy, trying to decide whether to drop the subject.)
(I did drop the subject.)
May '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Great leaders move the center to them, not themselves to the center. It's more than possible. It's proven.
Compromise should be an ending, not a beginning.
Hey, talking in platitudes is fun!
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Peter Robinson:
Shall we give those a run on Ricochet tomorrow?
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Aaron Miller:
Hey, talking in platitudes is fun! · May 23 at 10:25pm
Yes, but you'll fail the exam if you do, unless they're uncommonly witty platitudes.
Oct '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Peter Robinson:
Shall we give those a run on Ricochet tomorrow? · May 23 at 10:27pm
You know, a dream is like a river, ever-changing as it flows. And the dreamer's just a vessel that must follow where it goes..
Sep '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
In what ways, if at all, is time like a river?
Oh, good heavens. Doesn't anyone read their Heraclitus anymore?
Sheesh.
Oct '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
As for politics being the art of the possible, I like to think so. It always angers me when some pollster or another says that [insert candidate's name here] simply cannot win because his or her negatives are too high. That is absolute codswallop. Leaders change the polls.
Sep '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Hey, talking in platitudes is fun!
It got someone a ride on Air Force One.
Edited on May 23, 2011 at 10:35pmOct '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
"A man's character is his fate."
Sep '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Stealing a page from Aristotle, politics is the art of the probable, not merely the possible.
May '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
I first heard the phrase in the musical Evita, where it was interpreted cynically by Peronistas. "One always peecks the easy fight... One sheefts left to right. Politeeks. The art of the possible."
Later, in philosophy grad school, a dearly beloved, deeply religious prof.--now himself an Italian politician--changed my thinking while defending Machiavelli against another prof. who thought that he (Machiavelli) was practically the Anitichrist.
Politics really is an art. You have to grasp what the principles are, what the stakes are, what the mood of the electorate is, what you might be able to achieve and what not, when to act and when to refrain from acting...
May '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Peter Robinson:
No.
Not without a very singular act of God.
Jan '11
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Peter Robinson:
Shall we give those a run on Ricochet tomorrow? · May 23 at 10:27pm
Please no.
Like katievs, I went through philosophy graduate school. Some of my professors were tough questioners who demanded that you defend your beliefs and convictions, often against withering and often biased criticisms (don't like it? tough!).
Occasionally, though, you had to suffer through the other end of the spectrum, where everything was beautiful and every moment was consciousness-raising ... claptrap. Sadly, most college-aged students gravitate to the "meaningfulness" courses. They quickly get bored with the word games and scrap philosophy as ... claptrap.
(Always take Logic 101 first.)
Peter, if that was your final exam question, insist on a refund.
Nov '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Seems Bismarck's quote reflects a description of how politics may play itself out, rather than it being any statement about what politics actually is.
As for the "what is:" Leo Strauss's seminal criticism of Carl Schmitt's Concept of the Political* offers the most penetrating insight as to what politics is or might be. In a nutshell, it involves affirming the particular out of the universal (which is not simply Aristotelian politeia), i.e., the particular prior to any universal presuppositions. This actually was the gist of my quick point to Claire regarding Muslim immigration here; also of my statement to the effect that many people of libertarian bent don't see that all markets, contracts, and associations among individuals presuppose an absolute prior agreement to the "game" or the whole arrangement.
A fuller exposition of Strauss's criticism is indicated by Strauss's closing his City and Man with an essay on Thucydides; his implicit assertion that Thucydides is superior to Plato and Aristotle; and why the book, structurally, is a "parody" of Heidegger's Sophist.
----
* Which was the pivotal breakthrough determining Strauss's entire career; of the essay, Schmitt said "Strauss read me like an X-Ray."
Edited on May 24, 2011 at 1:24amNov '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
"Seems Bismarck's quote reflects a description of how politics may play itself out"
By that I mean most (or many) people seem to take Bismarck's statement to mean that the essence of politics is intelligent compromise. I'm not sure even Bismarck thought quite that, though I could be wrong...
May '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
Tactically, Bismarck's statement makes some sense. At a higher level, though, I think a more important feature of politics is the wisdom or discretion to avoid bringing politics to bear on that which is not political. If politics is simply the art of the possible, politics will possibly - nay, certainly - intrude in spheres where it doesn't belong. Hat tip to Dr. Rahe.
May '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
The Ryan budget plan is a great example of politics as the art of the possible.
The goal is fiscal soundness. For that entitlement reform or abolition is necessary. But those entitlements are so entrenched that touching them appeared politically impossible. Ryan found a way to make it possible. It's not ideal. It's problematic in various ways. It makes lots and lots of concessions that in an ideal world wouldn't be made. Yet, he's making it happen.
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
It wasn't--as he said, he dropped the subject--but a student who had been reading widely and seriously in philosophy would have a lot to say about both subjects. They're not silly questions, not even the second one: I'm guessing the examiners are looking to see whether the student immediately thinks "Nagel, Bats" and can then extend that argument, not merely recite it; assess it, and place it in the history of the philosophy of consciousness and physicalist arguments.
Sep '10
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
I'm guessing the examiners are looking to see whether the student immediately thinks "Nagel, Bats" and can then extend that argument, not merely recite it; assess it, and place it in the history of the philosophy of consciousness and physicalist arguments.
Then I assume you'd be tieing in Nagel's discussion of bats and echolocation, a porpoise's version of echolocation, contrast with Aristotle's discussions of sense location, circle back to Nagel that we understand we are in a mental state by being the subject of sensation and then discuss how we would distinguish being in a coma or a dream state from really being a porpoise and then make an extremely bad pun saying that Aristotle's teleology implies that we have a final porpoise.
(Loud groan, paper cups, spit balls being hurled in my general direction as I'm hustled out of the back door so the porporazzi can't snap my echolocation picture in time to track me down at sea.)
Jan '11
Re: "Politics is the Art of the Possible"
With respect, I disagree. Time is an important topic. Consciousness is an important topic. Nagel is a serious thinker. But setting an exam question to be whether you're a "porpoise in the river of time" is going for the cute, instead of simply asking straight-up questions about the topics.
And if you don't assess Pseudodionysius 15 yards and a loss of down for outrageous punning, I will be beside myself. And I think we all know how painful that can be.