Political Theory and Political Science: Studies in the Methodology of Political Inquiry. By Martin Landau. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972. Pp. xi, 244. $6.95.)

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 992-994
Author(s):  
Heinz Eulau
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Political Inquiry

Political Theory and the Study of Politics: A Report of a Conference

1956 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Eckstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sharp Distinction ◽  
Basic Issue ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
The One

The issues which arose during the discussions of the conference fall fairly conveniently into three compartments.First, we obviously had to settle, with reasonable clarity, what we were talking about: what “political philosophy” is, what “political science” is, and whether they are really distinguishable. The basic issue of the conference was to determine the relevance of the one to the study of the other, and if we had decided that they were really the same thing, there would simply have been no problems for us to discuss. On the whole, we felt that a valid, if not necessarily sharp, distinction was to be made between the “philosophical” and the “scientific” approaches to the study of politics and that we were not discussing absurd or tautological issues. We agreed, however, that all types of political inquiry involve the construction of theory, implicit or explicit, and that the title “political theory” has been unjustifiably appropriated by the historians of political thought.

Some Contributions of Sociology to Modern Political Theory

1921 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Elmer Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New York ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Published Paper ◽  
Science Association

The fact that a sociologist has been requested to appear upon the program of the American Political Science Association is in itself far more significant than any remarks which may be made upon the subject of the relation of sociology to political theory. It is an admission that some political scientists have at last come to consider sociology of sufficient significance to students of politics to be worthy a brief survey of its contributions to modern political theory.Many of the more liberal and progressive political scientists will doubtless ask themselves if this is not erecting a man of straw, and will inquire if there was ever a time when political scientists were not willing to consider the doctrines of sociology. One or two brief reminders will doubtless allay this suspicion. It was only about twenty years ago that a leading New York daily is reputed to have characterized a distinguished American sociologist as “the fake professor of a pretended science.” About a decade ago an ex-president of this association declared in a twice published paper that sociology was essentially worthless and unscientific and that all of its data had already been dealt with more adequately by the special social sciences.

The Primary Questions of Political Inquiry

1977 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene F. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Broad Agreement ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
The One

No principle commands wider support in political science today than the one which holds that the political scientist's primary task is the construction of theory. Political scientists with little else in common can usually agree on the possibility and desirability of political theory, even though they may disagree vigorously about its nature, source and content. This broad agreement tends to obscure something fundamental, namely, that the very idea of a theory of politics is something peculiar, indeed, something radically problematical. Political life has its own priorities and its own distinctive concerns, and these seem to be at odds with the priorities and concerns of theoretical speculation. The questions that confront the citizen seem to be very different from those that perplex the theorist. A story about the philosopher Anaxagoras serves to illustrate this divergence of the political and theoretical lives as well as the tension between them. It is reported that Anaxagoras took no interest in civic affairs and was blamed for his negligence. When someone asked him whether or not he cared about his country, he replied: “I will have great concern for my country after I have explained the heavens”.

Biology and Political Science. By Robert H. Blank and Samuel M. Hines, Jr. New York: Routledge, 2001. 183p. $80.00.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 798-799
Author(s):  
John Strate
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
Political Science Journals

What is biopolitics? The authors are well-published scholars in this field, and their answer to this question supplied in this book should give hope to those who are disappointed with the direction and progress of political science. Many of the questions about politics that biopolitics addresses were first asked by ancient political philosophers, such as Aristotle. The field of biopolitics, however, is only 30 or 40 years old. Over that time the field has strengthened its institutional base. Of equal importance, it has produced a growing body of scholarship in such fields as political theory, comparative politics and international relations, methodology, political behavior and decision making, and public administration and public policy. Unfortunately, largely because the field is interdisciplinary, only a small portion of this scholarship has been published in the major political science journals, so that most political scientists and other social scientists are largely unaware of what this field is and what it has to offer.

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