Introduction to Politics and Science

Flashcards covering Harold Lasswell's definition of politics, definitions of science, types of causality, and the scientific process based on lecture notes.

Who (in Harold Lasswell’s definition)

The actor involved in politics.

What (in Harold Lasswell’s definition)

The resources involved in politics.

When (in Harold Lasswell’s definition)

The temporal dimension of political activity.

Politics (Modified Definition)

Harold Lasswell’s view that politics is about who gets what and when, specifically regarding the allocation of valuable and scarce resources like money or oil.

Science (Clark, Golder and Golder)

A strategy for understanding and explaining puzzling social and natural phenomena.

Science (UK Science Council)

A systematic enterprise that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe, using a systematic methodology based on evidence.

Causality

When one factor contributes to the production of another factor; investigating how phenomenon $y$ comes to be because of factor $x$.

Deterministic causation

A relationship where phenomenon $y$ necessarily follows factor $x$.

Probabilistic causation

A relationship where the presence of a factor $x$ increases the chances that phenomenon $y$ occurs.

Falsifiability

The principle that science focuses on being proven partially or fully wrong; it allows us to learn that something is false, though we cannot prove it is definitively true.

Scientific process

A workflow consisting of a question (why did $y$ happen), a theory ($x$ causes $y$), a test (gathering evidence on $x$ and $y$), and an evaluation (assessing the chances $x$ causes $y$).