ABSTRACT
In what follows, I want to examine the challenge of realism, but I want to do this by exploring the pathology of realism amongst political philosophers. In taking this line I am primarily interested in diagnosing the problem of realism rather than seeking to challenge, correct or cure it. Although I retain a constitutional sympathy for the activity that the realists reject, and puzzlement at the attractions of the realist’s position, my point in this paper is to try and set out what that challenge is. In effect I am concerned with laying out the structure of the realist position. This enterprise, I take to be a first step to an answer to the realist’s critical challenge.
