Abstract

Jaffa maintains that academic or "scientific" political science has not and cannot produce a theory of American politics. Insofar as there is such a theory, it is to be found in the words and deeds of our great statesmen. By adopting the perspective of the statesman for his discussion of the "universals" equality and freedom, he assumes the validity of "value judgments" and of natural right; or rather, from this perspective the universal is already in the particular and does not need to be constructed by the scientist. Jaffa's exposition is thus able to dispense with methodology. The demonstration, however, that this approach is a viable alternative to the scientific study of politics is exhibited in the fact that his study makes American politics, as opposed to charts and graphs, comprehensible.—H. C.