HIST 150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Divine Right Of Kings, Montesquieu, Jean Bodin
Document Summary
Chapter 2 political science yesterday and today. Defined as a social science: we try to use scientific methods to study humanity. Division over methodology exists for two reasons: true knowledge is only found in the search for invariance, knowledge is the search for meaning, understanding and interpretation. Evolution of political science occurred through surges and sags . Herodotus, aristotle, and plato addressed questions like what govt is best : wrote both empirical (what is) and normative (what ought to be) works. Herodotus 3 govt types monarchy, aristocracy, democracy. Aristotle political systems evolve as natural social organisms from desire for moral perfection: believed the most stable political system is when the middle class holds power and numerical superiority, wrote politics and ethics. Kings adopted the concept of divine rule, that is, they were anointed by god. Printing press allows for spreading of political thought: allows for the masses to access political affairs. Term political science coined by jean bodin.
