Science, Politics and Ethics

Political Science 100

 Review of Concepts
• Ontology
– What is out there to know?
• Epistemology
– What can we know/hope to know about it?
• Methodology
– How do we go about acquiring the knowledge?
• Theory
– What has been known so far?
 The Functions of Political Analysis and
Research
• In no particular order:
– Validation of Theory/Law
– Social Advocacy Function
– Innovation in knowledge
– Research of Policy
– Criticism (Constructive)
 Where is the “Political” located?
• Foci of the “Political”
– Power and its manifestations/indicators
– Social Norms and Values
– Arena/Environment/Situation
– Process
– System/Structure
– Individual-in relation (Social Embeddedness)
 Limits of the “Political” (Hay and Marsh,
1999)
• Political
– Public
– Governmental
– State
• Extra-Political
– Private
– Extra-governmental
– Society
 Issues and Implications
• The limits are ARBITRARY, NOMINATIVE –
defined by the analyst/researcher
• Pluralist considers the involvement of various
actors, environments, and milieus of the
Political
• Structure and Agency issue
 Essential Questions
Is the “political” escapable? (Apolitical)
What can the answer/s suggest/s
regarding “Politicization”
or “De-politicization”?
How do/can we analyze or study “the
political”?
 Issue of Ethics (Colin Hay)
• Responsibilities of Social and political Analysts
• Positivism tends to exempt the search for the TRUTH
to justify ethical responsibility for analysis and
research.
• Trend (by post-positivists, relativism, postmodern) to
acknowledge value and theory-laden nature of social
and political inquiry
• The rise of Discourse: “there are no privileged vantage-
points, merely the conflict between alternative and
competing narratives with different premises