Facts and Norms: Radical Realists’ Alternative

Despite the recent turn towards empirically informed approaches to political theory, the field remains in the grip of a false dichotomy: either facts about the status quo unduly restrict the normative horizon, or moral commitments still take precedence over facts. These limitations mar political theorists’ ability to provide guidance on current politics. The goal for the next step of the empirical turn in political theory is to no longer be merely empirically informed, but empirically grounded. I will present how the recent radical turn in realist political thought can achieve this goal. Radical realism is committed to a non-partisan and non-activist mode of inquiry with an empirically based critical edge. I will spell out the synergies between the crucial but, thus far, separate building blocks contained in the heterogeneous group of recent realists.