"Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In order to improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives. The operation of these laws being impervious to our preferences, men will challenge them only at the risk of failure. Realism, believing as it does in the objectivity of the laws of politics, must also believe in the possibility of developing a rational theory that reflects, however imperfectly and one-sidedly, these objective laws. It believes also, then, in the possibility of distinguishing in politics between truth and opinion — between what is true objectively and rationally, supported by evidence and illuminated by reason, and what is only a subjective judgment, divorced from the facts as they are and informed by prejudice and wishful thinking."
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Academics from the United StatesAcademics from GermanyJews from the United StatesPhilosophers from GermanyNon-fiction authors from Germany
Original Language: English
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Six Principles of Political Realism, § 1
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hans_Morgenthau
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Hans Morgenthau
Hans Morgenthau (17 February 1904 -19 July 1980) was one of the leading twentieth-century figures in the study of international politics. He made landmark contributions to international-relations theory and the study of international law.
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