Ostalo
POLITICAL SCIENCE OLD AND NEW
Leo Strauss
Sažetak
Has the new political science, which operates in the conditions of democracy,
brought to light anything of political importance that the old political science
at its best did not know at least as well? The new political science starts from
the modern understanding of science, which holds that only scientific knowledge
is genuine knowledge. Just as classical physics had to be superseded
by nuclear physics so that the atomic age could come in via the atomic bomb,
the old political science had to be superseded by a sort of nuclear political
science. Serious criticism of the old political science is a waste of time; we
know in advance that it could only have been a pseudo science, although perhaps
including a few remarkably shrewd hunches. This is not to deny that the
adherents of the new political science sometimes engage in criticism of the
old, but they demonstrate a constitutional inability to understand the criticized
doctrines on their own terms. The new political science deems that our political
situation is entirely unprecedented, and that an unprecedented political
science is called for. But it fails to see that an unprecedented political situation
would be a situation of no political interest, i.e. not a political situation.
Now, if the essential character of all political situations was grasped by the old
political science, there seems to be no reason why it must be superseded by a
new political science. While the old, Aristotelian political science was based
on political experience, the new is based on scientific psychology. The Aristotelian
political science views political things in the perspective of the citizen;
since there is of necessity a variety of citizen perspectives, the political scientist
or political philosopher must become an umpire. The new political science
on the other hand looks at political things from without, in the perspective of
the neutral observer. Based as it is on empirism, it must reject the results of
political understanding and political experience as such, and since the political
things are given to us in political understanding and political experience,
the new political science cannot be helpful for the deeper understanding
thereof. The break with political understanding of political things necessitates
the making of a language different from the language used by political men.
The new political science claims that only its own language is unambiguous
and precise. Yet this claim is not warranted. The language of the new political
science is not less vague, but more vague, than the language used in political
life. In the crisis of the modern world, while Rome burns, one may say of it
that it fiddles, but, unlike Nero, it does not know that it fiddles, and it does not
know that Rome burns.
Ključne riječi
politics; science; new political science; Aristotelian political science
Hrčak ID:
84672
URI
Datum izdavanja:
6.6.2012.
Posjeta: 1.489 *