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Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics

1970/12/01 by Giovanni Sartori · 3,248 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Artificial intelligence #Computer science #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Epistemology #Law #Philosophy #Political Systems and Governance #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Scientific method #Sentence #Simple (philosophy) #Social science #Sociology #Sophistication #Unconscious mind

paper · doi:10.2307/1958356

published in American Political Science Review 64(4), 1033-1053 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 1970/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

“To have mastered ‘theory’ and ‘method’ is to have become a conscious thinker , a man at work and aware of the assumptions and implications of whatever he is about. To be mastered by ‘method’ or ‘theory’ is simply to be kept from working.” The sentence applies nicely to the present plight of political science. The profession as a whole oscillates between two unsound extremes. At the one end a large majority of political scientists qualify as pure and simple unconscious thinkers. At the other end a sophisticated minority qualify as overconscious thinkers, in the sense that their standards of method and theory are drawn from the physical, “paradigmatic” sciences. The wide gap between the unconscious and the overconscious thinker is concealed by the growing sophistication of statistical and research techniques. Most of the literature introduced by the title “Methods” (in the social, behavioral or political sciences) actually deals with survey techniques and social statistics, and has little if anything to share with the crucial concern of “methodology,” which is a concern with the logical structure and procedure of scientific enquiry. In a very crucial sense there is no methodology without logos , without thinking about thinking. And if a firm distinction is drawn—as it should be—between methodology and technique, the latter is no substitute for the former. One may be a wonderful researcher and manipulator of data, and yet remain an unconscious thinker.

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