Pol sci 115 midterm

September 14 2026

Lec 1: What is “politics"? Can it be a science?

-Not “bar” politics

Politics is the struggle for power within a group. Power gives some people the ability to make decisions for the larger group. In this sense, power is the ability to extend one's will.

Politics is EVERYWHERE

There will always be politics even when there are 2 people together

If there were 1 less, it wouldn't be politics

And there can't be politics without a common goal and conflict

“Politics” comes from the Greek word politkos: about the polis.

Aristotle: the city-state is the natural environment for man; therefore, man is inherently a political animal

Prof. Magos: many animals in the animal kingdom are political in one way or another; they live in groups, form colonies, cooperate to hunt, protect one another, and organize their social lives through both competition and cooperation

Individuals vary in their ability to cooperate - so do societies.

A society's success depends in part on its political organization- how well it coordinates and cooperates.

Politics matter because it helps us resolve conflicts and make decisions together- two things that are essential for a stable and healthy society; it's also a form of art.

Politics must be learnt to proceed with and pursue

Politics can be approached through theology and philosophy- St. Augustine of Hippo, “City of God”

Science is a method to understand the world. It tells us how we know, not what we know. Something is scientific not because of its subject, but because of how it is studied.

Doing science relies on a few basic postulates that you MUST accept. ( if you want to do optical science or another science)

Postulates of science:

1- nature is orderly

2- everyone can be a scientist and get to know nature, but only through the scientific method

3- knowledge is superior to ignorance, if only for survival purposes, though sometimes ignorance is bliss

4- Ethical considerations in scientific research - “the tree of knowledge”, “Pandora’s box”

5- Natural phenomena have natural causes

6- god is as nature: indivisible and self-caused- Baruch Spinoza

7- Nothing is self-evident - I think, therefore I am - René Descartes

8- Knowledge is derived from the acquisition of experience

Phrenology- a discredited 19th-century pseudoscience that claimed an individual's personality, intelligence, and character traits could be determined by measuring the bumps, lumps, and contours of the skull

Criticism and limitations of scientific method:

Positivism - my vision was to structure society and knowledge in ways grounded in verifiable data, aiming to create a systematic, scientific approach to understanding the world - Auguste Comte

Sep 21 2026

Lec 2: Spotting puzzles, crafting arguments

In political science, debates are open-ended questions about complex issues like democracy and justice where there are no simple, definitive, or “correct” answers

Debates can't be settled; therefore, they continue forever

Political scientists, we are not seeking a definitive “correct” answer; our goal is to be persuasive- not to win a debate but to establish the plausibility of our claims

“Raise your words, not your voice”

Debate examples in poli sci:

What causes democratization

What factors contribute to political polarization in modern democracies

Is the concept of human rights universal or culturally relative

A democratic participatory system requires a COMPATIBLE political culture

Gabriel Almond

International linkage and democratisation

Your neighbouring countries matter (international relations and democratisation)

Modernization and democratization- secularism

Elites and democratization

Society and democratization

Prof: X CAUSES Y

The grammar for a claim/argument should be affirmative, with direct style, free of adverbs, adjectives, or complexity.

A debate is worth joining when it revolves around a pressing puzzle.

Research Puzzles look like: “why x despite y”