Πολιτική επιστήμη, πειθαρχία και μέθοδος: με αφορμή το έργο του Giovanni Sartori

Abstract

Giovanni Sartori is one of the co-founders of modern political science. A scholar who has helped delimit the field (its nature, particularities, and the challenges it faces); has detected blunders and warned of pathologies; and has shown how much can be accomplished when social-scientific practice is grounded in the principles of Logos, as logic and linguistic discipline. Sartori argued that political science presupposes —and is the result of- the encounter between two sorts of autonomies: first, the autonomy of the object of politics (of politics seen in its own autonomy) a parte obiecti; and second, the autonomy of the knowledge-seeker a parte subiecti: that is, of the student of politics who sets out to study it in an autonomous manner —using ad hoc methodological tools, and developing a specialised language to process his/her data and communicate his/her findings. In the dawn of the 21st century, however, the discipline is burdened by environmental reducdonism (denying politics its causal significance) and conceptual and methodological sloppiness (preventing the emergence of a specialised language). Panteion University and Greek political science honour Giovanni Sartori for his outstanding contribution to the field, but also because he maintains the vision of a social and political science of Logos alive.