1. Why Do we Study Politics?
what's this all about?

2. To build a body of knowledge

3. What does it mean to Know Something?
Explain, Describe, Predict and Control
What are the sources of knowledge?
direct observation
reason
authority

4. direct observations
observe a sequence of events and see if it recurs in more than one instance.
law of gravity explains a lot, we have seen it happen often
Replicated events

5. Reason
Even if we haven’t seen a particular thing happen before (observation) it is logical that things will happen in a certain way

6. Authority
How do we know that Madison and the boys did their thing in 1787?
How do you know that we landed on the moon in 1968?

7. Which are the most reliable?
observation
reason
authority

8. what does this mean?

9. What is this?

10. Read This:

11. What is this?

12. How do we know that the sun rises each morning?

13. Why do we study politics
build body of knoweldge about the poltical world
explain, describe, predict, control

14. explain

15. describe

16. predict

17. control

18. Why do we study politics?
explain
describe
predict
control