Q.Do you think that a good/convincing argument can compel others to listen to you?

"Putting political theory into practice" describes the actual method political theorists use to work out what a political concept means. It starts from two simple questions that come up whenever we begin any real debate: "what does this actually mean?" and "how does it matter?" Unlike a mathematical term -- a triangle or a square has exactly one agreed definition -- a political concept such as equality or justice describes a relationship between human beings, who each hold their own opinions, so many different, competing definitions can be equally legitimate depending on context. We already do a version of this reasoning ourselves in everyday life: we resent people jumping a queue because we expect equal opportunity, yet we accept separate counters for the elderly or disabled as a fair exception; we notice that poor people cannot always access the same opportunities as everyone else because of circumstances beyond their control, and conclude that equality must sometimes mean active fairness -- support like subsidised services or a midday meal scheme -- rather than just equal opportunity. Political theorists take exactly this everyday process of noticing, questioning and refining, and make it rigorous and systematic. …