Session 2 Understanding of the word politics and its background

                     

When we talk about politics the very portrayal of it becomes vague for us. Is it positive or a negative thing or a mix of both? So let us see the origin and get a little understanding of the word. The word is derived from the Greek “polis” meaning city state. That referred to Athens at the time i.e. cradle of democracy. So we get this view of politics related with state running the affairs. Politics is defined in different ways that is as means of exercise of power, authority, decision making and also named as a practice of deception and manipulation. Aristotle says “Man is by nature a political animal”. By this he meant that by living in a political community human beings can flourish and work for their and society betterment. So from this point of view we can say politics is a moral activity.

The second question arises is if it is an ethical thing to do then why not develop it as a scientific field and nurture this noble cause. But the question remains is politics really a pure science? Up to some extent it is but there are certain things that lie as an obstacle to it being a hardcore science. Firstly the people who are trying to develop political theories they cannot gather accurate data on things they are working on. As if in they are trying to understand things that happened in history like why a state premier took a certain decision? They can make assumptions but   they do not have any real evidence to support it. Secondly the enthusiasts of this field have their hidden values while they are theorizing about politics. It’s that normative side with in every human being that he may inculcate in anything he is doing which can be a job which requires objectivity.   So the hurdle is not the bias but failing to acknowledge the bigotry while developing the hypothesis for certain phenomenon. That is why politics is seen with doubt when it comes to acknowledge it as a natural science.