Parte de:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00bfQu\u00e9 es la Filosof\u00eda Pol\u00edtica? \/ I. El problema de la Filosof\u00eda Pol\u00edtica<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Por Le\u014dnardus Str\u016bthi\u014d<\/span><\/p>\n\n Th<\/span>e character of political knowledge and of the demands made on it has been profoundly affected by a fairly recent change in the character of society. In former epochs, intelligent men could acquire the political knowledge, the political understanding they needed, by listening to wise old men or, which is the same thing, by reading good historians, as well as by looking around and by devoting themselves to public affairs. <\/span>Th<\/span>ese ways of acquiring political knowledge are no longer sufficient because we live in \u201cdynamic mass <\/span>societies,\u201d i.e., <\/span>in societi<\/span>e<\/span>s which are characterized by both immense complexity and rapid change. Political knowledge is more difficult to come by and it becomes obsolete more rapidly than in former times. Under these conditions it becomes necessary that a number of men should devote themselves entirely to the task of collecting and digesting knowledge of political things. It is this activity which today is frequently called political science. It does not emerge if it has not been realized among other things that even such political matters as have no bearing on the situation of the day deserve to be studied, and that their study must be carried on with the greatest possible care: a specific care which is designed to counteract the specific fallacies to which our judgment on political things is exposed. Furthermore, the men we speak of invest much toil in giving political knowledge the form of teachings which can be transmitted in classrooms. Moreover, while even the most unscrupulous politician must constantly try to replace in his own mind political opinion by political knowledge in order to be successful, the scholarly student of political things will go beyond this by trying to state the results of his investigations in public without any concealment and without any partisanship: he will act the part of the enlightened and patriotic citizen who <\/span>as no axe of his own to grind. Or, differently expressed, the <\/span>scholarly quest for political knowledge is essentially animated by a moral impulse, the love of truth. But however one may conceive of the difference between the scholarly and the non-scholarly quest for political knowledge, and however important these differences may be, the scholarly and the non-scholarly quest for political knowledge are identical in the decisive respect: their <\/span>centre<\/span> of reference is the given political situation, and even in most cases the given political situation in the individual\u2019<\/span>s<\/span> own country. It is true that a botanist in Israel pays special attention to the flora of Isra<\/span>el<\/span>, whereas the botanist in Canada pays special attention to the flora of Canada. But this difference, which is not more than the outcome of a convenient and even indispensable division of labour, has an entirely different character than the only apparently similar difference between the preoccupation of the Isra<\/span>eli<\/span> political scientist and the Canadian political scientist. It is only when the Here and Now ceases to be the centre of reference that a philosophic or scientific approach to politics can emerge.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Next paragraph<\/a><\/p>\n Previous paragraph<\/a><\/p>\n El car\u00e1cter del conocimiento pol\u00edtico y las exigencias que <\/span>le son impuestas <\/span>se han visto profundamente afectadas por un cambio relativamente reciente en el modo de ser de la sociedad. En \u00e9pocas pasadas, los hombres inteligentes pod\u00edan adquirir conocimientos pol\u00edticos <\/span>\u2014<\/span>la comprensi\u00f3n pol\u00edtica que necesitaban<\/span>\u2014<\/span> escuchando a hombres mayores prudentes o, lo que es lo mismo, leyendo a buenos historiadores con tanta facilidad como estudiando su situaci\u00f3n y dedic\u00e1ndose ellos mismos a los asuntos pol\u00edticos. Este modo de adquirir conocimientos pol\u00edticos ya no es suficiente, porque ahora vivimos en <\/span>\u00ab<\/span>sociedades din\u00e1micas de masas<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>, en sociedades que se caracterizan, al mismo tiempo, por una inmensa complejidad y por un <\/span>cambio vertiginoso<\/span>. El conocimiento pol\u00edtico es hoy m\u00e1s dif\u00edcil de adquirir y queda anticuado con m\u00e1s celeridad que en otros tiempos. En estas circunstancias se hace necesario que un n\u00famero determinado de hombres se dedique exclusivamente a la tarea de recoger y asimilar el conocimiento sobre lo pol\u00edtico. Es a esta actividad a la que hoy frecuentemente se le denomina ciencia pol\u00edtica. Esta solo surge cuando se ha comprendido, entre otras cosas, que incluso temas pol\u00edticos que no tienen gran peso en una situaci\u00f3n determinada merecen ser estudiados y que su estudio tiene que ser llevado a cabo con el mayor cuidado posible: un cuidado espec\u00edfico que est\u00e1 destinado a contrarrestar las falacias espec\u00edficas a las que nuestro juicio sobre lo pol\u00edtico est\u00e1 siempre expuesto. A\u00fan m\u00e1s, estos hombres de que hablamos dedican buena parte de su esfuerzo a dar al conocimiento pol\u00edtico la forma de ense\u00f1anzas que puedan ser transmitidas en las aulas. <\/span>Adem\u00e1s<\/span>, aunque el pol\u00edtico menos escrupuloso tenga que intentar constantemente sustituir en su propia mente las opiniones por aut\u00e9nticos conocimientos pol\u00edticos con el fin de seguir teniendo \u00e9xito, el estudi<\/span>ante acad\u00e9mico<\/span> de lo pol\u00edtico ir\u00e1 m\u00e1s all\u00e1, intentando <\/span>presentar en p\u00fablico el resultado de sus investigaciones sin ninguna <\/span>omisi\u00f3n ni parcialidad: el estudio representar\u00e1 el papel del ciudadano ilustre y patri\u00f3tico que <\/span>act\u00faa de forma desinteresada<\/span>. <\/span>D<\/span>icho de otro modo, la b\u00fasqueda <\/span>acad\u00e9mica <\/span>del conocimiento pol\u00edtico est\u00e1 animada esencialmente por un impulso moral: el amor a la verdad. No obstante, de cualquier modo que pueda concebirse la diferencia entre la b\u00fasqueda del conocimiento pol\u00edtico por el estudioso y el no estudioso, y por muy importantes que estas diferencias puedan ser, la b\u00fasqueda del conocimiento pol\u00edtico que lleva a cabo el estudioso y aquella que realiza el no estudioso se identifican en su aspecto fundamental: su centro de referencia es la situaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica dada, e incluso, en la mayor\u00eda de los casos, la situaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica concreta en el pa\u00eds del individuo que realiza la investigaci\u00f3n. Es verdad, en efecto, que un bot\u00e1nico en Israel presta una especial atenci\u00f3n a la flora de Israel, mientras que un bot\u00e1nico de Canad\u00e1 presta especial atenci\u00f3n a la flora de Canad\u00e1. Pero esta diferencia, que no es m\u00e1s que el resultado de una <\/span>di<\/span>visi\u00f3n del trabajo conveniente e indispensable, tiene un significado completamente similar entre las preocupaciones de un cient\u00edfico de la pol\u00edtica israel\u00ed y otro canadiense. S\u00f3lo cuando el <\/span>A<\/span>qu\u00ed y <\/span>A<\/span>hora desaparecen como centro de referencia puede surgir el enfoque filos\u00f3fico o cient\u00edfico de lo pol\u00edtico.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Siguiente p\u00e1rrafo<\/a><\/p>\n P\u00e1rrafo anterior<\/a><\/p>\n Ir al inicio de esta entrada<\/a><\/p>\nLe<\/span>\u014d<\/span>nard<\/span>\u012b<\/span> Str\u016bt<\/span>h<\/span>i<\/span>\u014dnis verba<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
Hisp<\/span>\u0101<\/span>nice<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n