The Nature and Limits of Political Science
E718264
The Nature and Limits of Political Science is a critical work of political theory by Maurice Cowling that challenges the assumptions and scope of modern political science as an academic discipline.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Nature and Limits of Political Science canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8191179 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Nature and Limits of Political Science Context triple: [Maurice Cowling, notableWork, The Nature and Limits of Political Science]
-
A.
The Concept of the Political
The Concept of the Political is Carl Schmitt’s influential treatise that defines the political realm through the friend–enemy distinction and critiques liberalism’s attempt to depoliticize conflict.
-
B.
Varieties of Political Theory
Varieties of Political Theory is a seminal collection of essays by political scientist David Easton that surveys and critiques major approaches and methodologies in modern political theory.
-
C.
“The Logic of American Politics”
“The Logic of American Politics” is a widely used scholarly textbook that analyzes the institutions, incentives, and collective action problems shaping political behavior and governance in the United States.
-
D.
A Preface to Politics
A Preface to Politics is a 1913 political and social critique by Walter Lippmann that challenges traditional liberalism and explores how modern industrial society demands new approaches to democracy and governance.
-
E.
The Calculus of Consent
The Calculus of Consent is a foundational work in public choice theory that analyzes how constitutional rules and collective decision-making processes shape political and economic outcomes.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Nature and Limits of Political Science Target entity description: The Nature and Limits of Political Science is a critical work of political theory by Maurice Cowling that challenges the assumptions and scope of modern political science as an academic discipline.
-
A.
The Concept of the Political
The Concept of the Political is Carl Schmitt’s influential treatise that defines the political realm through the friend–enemy distinction and critiques liberalism’s attempt to depoliticize conflict.
-
B.
Varieties of Political Theory
Varieties of Political Theory is a seminal collection of essays by political scientist David Easton that surveys and critiques major approaches and methodologies in modern political theory.
-
C.
“The Logic of American Politics”
“The Logic of American Politics” is a widely used scholarly textbook that analyzes the institutions, incentives, and collective action problems shaping political behavior and governance in the United States.
-
D.
A Preface to Politics
A Preface to Politics is a 1913 political and social critique by Walter Lippmann that challenges traditional liberalism and explores how modern industrial society demands new approaches to democracy and governance.
-
E.
The Calculus of Consent
The Calculus of Consent is a foundational work in public choice theory that analyzes how constitutional rules and collective decision-making processes shape political and economic outcomes.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
work of political theory ⓘ |
| argues |
political analysis is shaped by the analyst’s assumptions and commitments
ⓘ
political science cannot be a value-free science ⓘ political science has inherent limits in predicting political outcomes ⓘ political understanding is inseparable from moral and historical judgment ⓘ |
| author | Maurice Cowling ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| critiques |
behavioralism in political science
ⓘ
claims of objectivity in political science ⓘ overextension of social science methods to political judgment ⓘ scientistic approaches to politics ⓘ |
| describedBySource | critical work of political theory by Maurice Cowling that challenges the assumptions and scope of modern political science as an academic discipline ⓘ |
| discusses |
methods of political analysis
ⓘ
relationship between political science and history ⓘ relationship between political science and philosophy ⓘ role of ideology in political inquiry ⓘ scope of political science as an academic discipline ⓘ |
| field |
political science
ⓘ
political theory ⓘ |
| genre |
political science criticism
ⓘ
political theory ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
critical of modern political science
ⓘ
emphasizes historical and philosophical dimensions of politics ⓘ skeptical of value-neutral political analysis ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
critique of academic professionalization of political science
ⓘ
epistemological limits of social science ⓘ limits of scientific method in politics ⓘ normativity in political inquiry ⓘ relationship between theory and practice in politics ⓘ role of judgment in political analysis ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
British political philosophy
ⓘ
conservative political thought ⓘ historical approaches to politics ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
critique of modern social science
ⓘ
limits of political science as a discipline ⓘ methodology of political science ⓘ nature of political inquiry ⓘ political science ⓘ relationship between political theory and political practice ⓘ |
| notableFor |
argument about the inherent limits of political science as a discipline
ⓘ
association with Maurice Cowling’s broader conservative critique of liberal academia ⓘ systematic critique of modern political science ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Nature and Limits of Political Science Description of subject: The Nature and Limits of Political Science is a critical work of political theory by Maurice Cowling that challenges the assumptions and scope of modern political science as an academic discipline.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.