143-514: In political science , the term class conflict , or class struggle , refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequalities of power in the socioeconomic hierarchy. In its simplest manifestation, class conflict refers to the ongoing battle between rich and poor . In the writings of several leftist , socialist , and communist theorists, notably those of Karl Marx , class struggle
286-570: A gymnasium and a colonnade ( peripatos ), from which the school acquired the name Peripatetic . Aristotle conducted courses and research at the school for the next twelve years. He often lectured small groups of distinguished students and, along with some of them, such as Theophrastus , Eudemus , and Aristoxenus , Aristotle built a large library which included manuscripts, maps, and museum objects. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stagira. They had
429-541: A "survival of the fittest" origin of living things and their organs, and ridiculed the idea that accidents could lead to orderly results. To put his views into modern terms, he nowhere says that different species can have a common ancestor , or that one kind can change into another , or that kinds can become extinct . Aristotle did not do experiments in the modern sense. He used the ancient Greek term pepeiramenoi to mean observations, or at most investigative procedures like dissection. In Generation of Animals , he finds
572-645: A child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At around eighteen years old, he joined Plato 's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty seven ( c. 347 BC ). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon , tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum, which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls . Though Aristotle wrote many treatises and dialogues for publication, only around
715-419: A clear set of antecedents including moral philosophy, political economy, political theology , history, and other fields concerned with normative determinations of what ought to be and with deducing the characteristics and functions of the ideal state. Generally, classical political philosophy is primarily defined by a concern for Hellenic and Enlightenment thought, political scientists are also marked by
858-552: A daughter whom they also named Pythias. In 343/42 BC, Aristotle was invited to Pella by Philip II of Macedon in order to become the tutor to his thirteen-year-old son Alexander ; a choice perhaps influenced by the relationship of Aristotle's family with the Macedonian dynasty. Aristotle taught Alexander at the private school of Mieza , in the gardens of the Nymphs , the royal estate near Pella. Alexander's education probably included
1001-438: A fertilized hen's egg of a suitable stage and opens it to see the embryo's heart beating inside. Instead, he practiced a different style of science: systematically gathering data, discovering patterns common to whole groups of animals, and inferring possible causal explanations from these. This style is common in modern biology when large amounts of data become available in a new field, such as genomics . It does not result in
1144-497: A fluid such as air. In this system, heavy bodies in steady fall indeed travel faster than light ones (whether friction is ignored, or not ), and they do fall more slowly in a denser medium. Newton's "forced" motion corresponds to Aristotle's "violent" motion with its external agent, but Aristotle's assumption that the agent's effect stops immediately it stops acting (e.g., the ball leaves the thrower's hand) has awkward consequences: he has to suppose that surrounding fluid helps to push
1287-435: A great concern for " modernity " and the contemporary nation state , along with the study of classical thought, and as such share more terminology with sociologists (e.g., structure and agency ). The advent of political science as a university discipline was marked by the creation of university departments and chairs with the title of political science arising in the late 19th century. The designation "political scientist"
1430-416: A highly developed set of psychological mechanisms for dealing with politics. However, these mechanisms evolved for dealing with the small group politics that characterized the ancestral environment and not the much larger political structures in today's world. This is argued to explain many important features and systematic cognitive biases of current politics. Political science is a social study concerning
1573-480: A host of political systems and situations. Other approaches include the study of equation-based models and opinion dynamics. Political theorists approach theories of political phenomena with a similar diversity of positions and tools, including feminist political theory , historical analysis associated with the Cambridge school , and Straussian approaches . Political science may overlap with topics of study that are
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#17328839753161716-455: A house is the bricks, stones, timbers, etc., or whatever constitutes the potential house, while the form of the substance is the actual house, namely 'covering for bodies and chattels' or any other differentia that let us define something as a house. The formula that gives the components is the account of the matter, and the formula that gives the differentia is the account of the form. Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle's philosophy aims at
1859-597: A linear scale, and noted various exceptions, such as that sharks had a placenta like the tetrapods. To a modern biologist, the explanation, not available to Aristotle, is convergent evolution . Philosophers of science have generally concluded that Aristotle was not interested in taxonomy, but zoologists who studied this question in the early 21st century think otherwise. He believed that purposive final causes guided all natural processes; this teleological view justified his observed data as an expression of formal design. Aristotle's psychology , given in his treatise On
2002-411: A necessary result of political liberty, stating that the most important task of government was to manage and adjust for 'the spirit of party'. In his Philosophy of Right , Hegel expressed concern that the standard of living of the poor might drop so far as to make it even easier for the rich to amass even more wealth. Hegel believed that, especially in a liberal country such as contemporary England,
2145-480: A number of subjects, such as ethics and politics , as well as standard literary texts, like Euripides and Homer . It is likely that during Aristotle's time in the Macedonian court, other prominent nobles, like Ptolemy and Cassander , would have occasionally attended his lectures. Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and his own attitude towards Persia was strongly ethnocentric . In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a leader to
2288-435: A part of particular things. For example, it is possible that there is no particular good in existence, but "good" is still a proper universal form. Aristotle disagreed with Plato on this point, arguing that all universals are instantiated at some period of time, and that there are no universals that are unattached to existing things. In addition, Aristotle disagreed with Plato about the location of universals. Where Plato spoke of
2431-470: A prerequisite for successful revolution is class solidarity . Marx's theory of history asserts that in the history of economic systems such as capitalism and feudalism , class struggle is "the central fact of social evolution." Indeed, the first sentence of Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto reads: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marxists view
2574-498: A priori principles. Aristotle's "natural philosophy" spans a wide range of natural phenomena including those now covered by physics, biology and other natural sciences. In Aristotle's terminology, "natural philosophy" is a branch of philosophy examining the phenomena of the natural world, and includes fields that would be regarded today as physics, biology and other natural sciences. Aristotle's work encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry. Aristotle makes philosophy in
2717-418: A property or a relation to other things. When one looks at an apple, for example, one sees an apple, and one can also analyse a form of an apple. In this distinction, there is a particular apple and a universal form of an apple. Moreover, one can place an apple next to a book, so that one can speak of both the book and apple as being next to each other. Plato argued that there are some universal forms that are not
2860-516: A provocative history of the late republic in Rome (100–33 BC) to demonstrate that Caesar's death was the culmination of growing class conflict, economic disparity and political corruption." Kirkus Reviews wrote: "Populist historian Parenti... views ancient Rome's most famous assassination not as a tyrannicide but as a sanguinary scene in the never-ending drama of class warfare." The patrician Coriolanus , whose life William Shakespeare would later depict in
3003-446: A separate constituent college or academic department, then political science may be a separate department housed as part of a division or school of humanities or liberal arts . At some universities, especially research universities and in particular those that have a strong cooperation between research, undergraduate, and graduate faculty with a stronger more applied emphasis in public administration, political science would be taught by
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#17328839753163146-602: A set of six books called the Organon around 40 BC by Andronicus of Rhodes or others among his followers. The books are: The order of the books (or the teachings from which they are composed) is not certain, but this list was derived from analysis of Aristotle's writings. It goes from the basics, the analysis of simple terms in the Categories, the analysis of propositions and their elementary relations in On Interpretation , to
3289-416: A social science, contemporary political science started to take shape in the latter half of the 19th century and began to separate itself from political philosophy and history. Into the late 19th century, it was still uncommon for political science to be considered a distinct field from history. The term "political science" was not always distinguished from political philosophy, and the modern discipline has
3432-549: A son whom Aristotle named after his father, Nicomachus . This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his philosophical works. He wrote many dialogues, of which only fragments have survived. Those works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication; they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include Physics , Metaphysics , Nicomachean Ethics , Politics , On
3575-413: A study of human behavior , in all aspects of politics , observations in controlled environments are often challenging to reproduce or duplicate, though experimental methods are increasingly common (see experimental political science ). Citing this difficulty, former American Political Science Association President Lawrence Lowell once said "We are limited by the impossibility of experiment. Politics
3718-457: A third of his original output has survived , none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant impact across the world, and remain a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion. Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship . The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and
3861-549: A thrown stone, in the Physics (254b10), and "natural motion", such as of a falling object, in On the Heavens (300a20). In violent motion, as soon as the agent stops causing it, the motion stops also: in other words, the natural state of an object is to be at rest, since Aristotle does not address friction . With this understanding, it can be observed that, as Aristotle stated, heavy objects (on
4004-472: A variety of capacities, people educated and trained in political science can add value and expertise to corporations . Private enterprises such as think tanks , research institutes, polling and public relations firms often employ political scientists. Political scientists may study political phenomena within one specific country. For example, they may study just the politics of the United States or just
4147-544: A woman with origins from Chalcis , Euboea . Nicomachus was said to have belonged to the medical guild of Asclepiadae and was likely responsible for Aristotle's early interest in biology and medicine. Ancient tradition held that Aristotle's family descended from the legendary physician Asclepius and his son Machaon . Both of Aristotle's parents died when he was still at a young age and Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. Although little information about Aristotle's childhood has survived, he probably spent some time in
4290-412: Is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in psychology, social research , political philosophy, and many others, in addition to those that developed chiefly within the field of political science. Political scientists approach the study of politics from a host of different ontological orientations and with a variety of different tools. Because political science is essentially
4433-425: Is a change where the substrate of the thing that has undergone the change has itself changed. In that particular change he introduces the concept of potentiality ( dynamis ) and actuality ( entelecheia ) in association with the matter and the form. Referring to potentiality, this is what a thing is capable of doing or being acted upon if the conditions are right and it is not prevented by something else. For example,
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4576-408: Is a core tenet and a practical means for effecting radical sociopolitical transformations for the majority working class . It is also a central concept within conflict theories of sociology and political philosophy . Class conflict can reveal itself through: In the economic sphere, class conflict is sometimes expressed overtly, such as owner lockouts of their employees in an effort to weaken
4719-416: Is a defining feature of contemporary political science. Empirical political science methods include the use of field experiments, surveys and survey experiments, case studies, process tracing, historical and institutional analysis, ethnography, participant observation, and interview research. Political scientists also use and develop theoretical tools like game theory and agent-based models to study
4862-425: Is a great property, there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate, that the owner of that valuable property, which
5005-454: Is a historical accident: his works on botany have been lost, but two books on plants by his pupil Theophrastus have survived. Aristotle reports on the sea-life visible from observation on Lesbos and the catches of fishermen. He describes the catfish , electric ray , and frogfish in detail, as well as cephalopods such as the octopus and paper nautilus . His description of the hectocotyl arm of cephalopods, used in sexual reproduction,
5148-406: Is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate, continually held up to chastise it. Writing The Wealth of Nations , Smith's concern
5291-419: Is also a final cause or end. Then Aristotle proceeds and concludes that the actuality is prior to potentiality in formula, in time and in substantiality. With this definition of the particular substance (i.e., matter and form), Aristotle tries to solve the problem of the unity of the beings, for example, "what is it that makes a man one"? Since, according to Plato there are two Ideas: animal and biped, how then
5434-409: Is an observational, not an experimental science." Because of this, political scientists have historically observed political elites, institutions, and individual or group behaviour in order to identify patterns, draw generalizations, and build theories of politics. Like all social sciences, political science faces the difficulty of observing human actors that can only be partially observed and who have
5577-417: Is commonly used to denote someone with a doctorate or master's degree in the field. Integrating political studies of the past into a unified discipline is ongoing, and the history of political science has provided a rich field for the growth of both normative and positive political science, with each part of the discipline sharing some historical predecessors. The American Political Science Association and
5720-541: Is man a unity? However, according to Aristotle, the potential being (matter) and the actual one (form) are one and the same. Aristotle's immanent realism means his epistemology is based on the study of things that exist or happen in the world, and rises to knowledge of the universal, whereas for Plato epistemology begins with knowledge of universal Forms (or ideas) and descends to knowledge of particular imitations of these. Aristotle uses induction from examples alongside deduction , whereas Plato relies on deduction from
5863-413: Is the fulfilment of the end of the potentiality. Because the end ( telos ) is the principle of every change, and potentiality exists for the sake of the end, actuality, accordingly, is the end. Referring then to the previous example, it can be said that an actuality is when a plant does one of the activities that plants do. For that for the sake of which ( to hou heneka ) a thing is, is its principle, and
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6006-474: Is the scientific study of politics . It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior , and associated constitutions and laws . Political science is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political institutions, political thought and behavior, and associated constitutions and laws . As
6149-429: Is wrong for the rich to impoverish the multitude. Moreover, Aristotle further discussed a middle way, between laxity and cruelty, in the treatment of slaves by their masters, averring that "if not kept in hand, [slaves] are insolent, and think that they are as good as their masters, and, if harshly treated, they hate and conspire against them." Socrates was the first Greek philosopher to describe class conflict. In
6292-507: The American Political Science Review were founded in 1903 and 1906, respectively, in an effort to distinguish the study of politics from economics and other social phenomena. APSA membership rose from 204 in 1904 to 1,462 in 1915. APSA members played a key role in setting up political science departments that were distinct from history, philosophy, law, sociology, and economics. The journal Political Science Quarterly
6435-471: The Republic , by Plato , Socrates said that "any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other [the city] of the rich; these [cities] are at war with one another." Socrates disapproved of oligarchies , in which members of a small class of wealthy property owners take positions of political power in order to dominate the large social class of impoverished commoners; and used
6578-501: The Conflict of the Orders and the slave revolt led by Spartacus . In his History , Thucydides describes a civil war in the city of Corcyra between the pro- Athens party of the common people and their pro- Corinth oligarchic opposition. Near the climax of the struggle, "the oligarchs in full rout, fearing that the victorious commons might assault and carry the arsenal and put them to
6721-930: The Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance , and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology , especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church . Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while
6864-634: The Early Modern period. John Philoponus (in Late antiquity ) and Galileo (in Early modern period ) are said to have shown by experiment that Aristotle's claim that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect. A contrary opinion is given by Carlo Rovelli , who argues that Aristotle's physics of motion is correct within its domain of validity, that of objects in the Earth 's gravitational field immersed in
7007-515: The Great Comet of 371 BC . Aristotle was one of the first people to record any geological observations. He stated that geological change was too slow to be observed in one person's lifetime. The geologist Charles Lyell noted that Aristotle described such change, including "lakes that had dried up" and "deserts that had become watered by rivers", giving as examples the growth of the Nile delta since
7150-471: The History of Animals in a graded scale of perfection, a nonreligious version of the scala naturae , with man at the top. His system had eleven grades of animal, from highest potential to lowest, expressed in their form at birth: the highest gave live birth to hot and wet creatures, the lowest laid cold, dry mineral-like eggs. Animals came above plants , and these in turn were above minerals. He grouped what
7293-538: The Macedonian capital, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy . At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Plato's Academy . He became distinguished as a researcher and lecturer, earning for himself the nickname "mind of the school" by his tutor Plato . In Athens, he probably experienced the Eleusinian Mysteries as he wrote when describing
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#17328839753167436-451: The Milky Way was made up of "those stars which are shaded by the earth from the sun's rays," pointing out partly correctly that if "the size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then... the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them." He also wrote descriptions of comets, including
7579-483: The Perestroika Movement in political science was introduced as a reaction against what supporters of the movement called the mathematicization of political science. Those who identified with the movement argued for a plurality of methodologies and approaches in political science and for more relevance of the discipline to those outside of it. Some evolutionary psychology theories argue that humans have evolved
7722-508: The Physics (215a25), Aristotle effectively states a quantitative law, that the speed, v, of a falling body is proportional (say, with constant c) to its weight, W, and inversely proportional to the density, ρ, of the fluid in which it is falling:; Aristotle implies that in a vacuum the speed of fall would become infinite, and concludes from this apparent absurdity that a vacuum is not possible. Opinions have varied on whether Aristotle intended to state quantitative laws. Henri Carteron held
7865-413: The bargaining power of the employees' union ; or covertly, such as a worker slowdown of production or the widespread, simultaneous use of sick leave (e.g., " blue flu ") to protest unfair labor practices , low wages, poor work conditions , or a perceived injustice to a fellow worker. When Marxists speak of class struggle, they define a class primarily in economic terms, i.e., by its relationship to
8008-429: The means of production . When anarchists like Bakunin speak of class struggle, they have a broader definition of "social class" which encompasses "notions of domination and privilege" in the political and cultural spheres as well as the economic. Bakunin believed the successful struggle of the dominated classes would achieve a revolution to depose the ruling elites and create a stateless or libertarian socialism , and that
8151-450: The overthrow of the Roman monarchy . In The Spirit of Laws he lists the four main grievances of the plebs, which were rectified in the years following the deposition of King Tarquin : The Senate had the ability to give a magistrate the power of dictatorship , meaning he could bypass public law in the pursuit of a prescribed mandate. Montesquieu explains that the purpose of this institution
8294-423: The politics of China . Political scientists look at a variety of data, including constitutions, elections , public opinion , and public policy , foreign policy , legislatures, and judiciaries. Political scientists will often focus on the politics of their own country; for example, a political scientist from Indonesia may become an expert in the politics of Indonesia. The theory of political transitions, and
8437-412: The universal . Aristotle's ontology places the universal ( katholou ) in particulars ( kath' hekaston ), things in the world, whereas for Plato the universal is a separately existing form which actual things imitate. For Aristotle, "form" is still what phenomena are based on, but is "instantiated" in a particular substance. Plato argued that all things have a universal form , which could be either
8580-402: The "chief enemy to the people" and "a very dog to the commonalty" while the leader of the mob speaks out against the patricians thusly: They ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
8723-513: The "extreme view" that Aristotle's concept of force was basically qualitative, but other authors reject this. Archimedes corrected Aristotle's theory that bodies move towards their natural resting places; metal boats can float if they displace enough water ; floating depends in Archimedes' scheme on the mass and volume of the object, not, as Aristotle thought, its elementary composition. Aristotle's writings on motion remained influential until
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#17328839753168866-470: The "violence of the great lords": In order to understand this, it must be remembered, that, in those days, the sovereign of perhaps no country in Europe was able to protect, through the whole extent of his dominions, the weaker part of his subjects from the oppression of the great lords. Those whom the law could not protect, and who were not strong enough to defend themselves, were obliged either to have recourse to
9009-435: The 'severity of the patricians their creditors, the debts due to whom they had to discharge by slave-work, drove the plebs to revolts.' Gibbon also explains how Augustus facilitated this class conflict by pacifying the plebs with actual bread and circuses . The economist Adam Smith noted that the poor freeman's lack of land provided a major impetus for Roman colonisation , as a way to relieve class tensions at home between
9152-518: The Colonies , were composed by the philosopher for the young prince. After Philip II's assassination in 336 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens for the second and final time a year later. As a metic , Aristotle could not own property in Athens and thus rented a building known as the Lyceum (named after the sacred grove of Apollo Lykeios ), in which he established his own school. The building included
9295-558: The European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to
9438-602: The Greeks and a despot to the barbarians". Alexander's education under the guardianship of Aristotle likely lasted for only a few years, as at around the age of sixteen he returned to Pella and was appointed regent of Macedon by his father Philip. During this time, Aristotle is said to have gifted Alexander an annotated copy of the Iliad , which reportedly became one of Alexander's most prized possessions. Scholars speculate that two of Aristotle's now lost works, On kingship and On behalf of
9581-750: The Persians, and philosophical questions, like the definition of braveness. A widespread speculation in antiquity suggested that Aristotle played a role in Alexander's death, but the only evidence of this is an unlikely claim made some six years after the death. Following Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens was rekindled. In 322 BC, Demophilus and Eurymedon the Hierophant reportedly denounced Aristotle for impiety, prompting him to flee to his mother's family estate in Chalcis, Euboea , at which occasion he
9724-487: The Soul and Poetics . Aristotle studied and made significant contributions to "logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance, and theatre." While Alexander deeply admired Aristotle, near the end of his life, the two men became estranged having diverging opinions over issues, like the optimal administration of city-states, the treatment of conquered populations, such as
9867-525: The United States Congress, as well as political behavior, such as voting. William H. Riker and his colleagues and students at the University of Rochester were the main proponents of this shift. Despite considerable research progress in the discipline based on all types of scholarship discussed above, scholars have noted that progress toward systematic theory has been modest and uneven. In 2000,
10010-464: The United States is Pi Sigma Alpha , while Pi Alpha Alpha is a national honor society specifically designated for public administration . Aristotle Aristotle ( Attic Greek : Ἀριστοτέλης , romanized: Aristotélēs ; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath . His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences , philosophy , linguistics , economics , politics , psychology , and
10153-485: The United States, see political science as part of a broader discipline of political studies or politics in general. While political science implies the use of the scientific method , political studies implies a broader approach, although the naming of degree courses does not necessarily reflect their content. Separate, specialized or, in some cases, professional degree programs in international relations , public policy , and public administration are common at both
10296-922: The allocation and transfer of power in decision making , the roles and systems of governance including governments and international organizations , political behaviour, and public policies . It measures the success of governance and specific policies by examining many factors, including stability , justice , material wealth , peace , and public health . Some political scientists seek to advance positive theses (which attempt to describe how things are, as opposed to how they should be) by analysing politics; others advance normative theses, such as by making specific policy recommendations. The study of politics and policies can be closely connected—for example, in comparative analyses of which types of political institutions tend to produce certain types of policies. Political science provides analysis and predictions about political and governmental issues. Political scientists examine
10439-461: The analogy of a maritime pilot , who, like the power-holder in a polis , ought to be chosen for political office for his skill, not for the amount of property he owns. The historian Plutarch recounts how the Greek people participated in the class conflict between the aristocrats and the common folk. Financially oppressed by their indebtedness to the aristocrats, the mass of Athenians chose Solon to be
10582-554: The arts . As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens , he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science . Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period . His father, Nicomachus , died when Aristotle was
10725-489: The ball along to make it continue to rise even though the hand is no longer acting on it, resulting in the Medieval theory of impetus . Aristotle suggested that the reason for anything coming about can be attributed to four different types of simultaneously active factors. His term aitia is traditionally translated as "cause", but it does not always refer to temporal sequence; it might be better translated as "explanation", but
10868-399: The becoming is for the sake of the end; and the actuality is the end, and it is for the sake of this that the potentiality is acquired. For animals do not see in order that they may have sight, but they have sight that they may see. In summary, the matter used to make a house has potentiality to be a house and both the activity of building and the form of the final house are actualities, which
11011-574: The broad sense coextensive with reasoning, which he also would describe as "science". However, his use of the term science carries a different meaning than that covered by the term "scientific method". For Aristotle, "all science ( dianoia ) is either practical, poetical or theoretical" ( Metaphysics 1025b25). His practical science includes ethics and politics; his poetical science means the study of fine arts including poetry; his theoretical science covers physics, mathematics and metaphysics. In his On Generation and Corruption , Aristotle related each of
11154-406: The capacity for making conscious choices, unlike other subjects, such as non-human organisms in biology , minerals in geoscience , chemical elements in chemistry , stars in astronomy , or particles in physics . Despite the complexities, contemporary political science has progressed by adopting a variety of methods and theoretical approaches to understanding politics, and methodological pluralism
11297-433: The cause of earthquakes was a gas or vapor ( anathymiaseis ) that was trapped inside the earth and trying to escape, following other Greek authors Anaxagoras , Empedocles and Democritus . Aristotle also made many observations about the hydrologic cycle. For example, he made some of the earliest observations about desalination: he observed early – and correctly – that when seawater is heated, freshwater evaporates and that
11440-428: The collaboration between sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld and public opinion scholar Bernard Berelson . The late 1960s and early 1970s witnessed a takeoff in the use of deductive, game-theoretic formal modelling techniques aimed at generating a more analytical corpus of knowledge in the discipline. This period saw a surge of research that borrowed theory and methods from economics to study political institutions, such as
11583-410: The composite natural ones, the study of nature would be the primary kind of knowledge; but if there is some motionless independent thing, the knowledge of this precedes it and is first philosophy, and it is universal in just this way , because it is first. And it belongs to this sort of philosophy to study being as being, both what it is and what belongs to it just by virtue of being. Aristotle examines
11726-406: The concepts of substance ( ousia ) and essence ( to ti ên einai , "the what it was to be") in his Metaphysics (Book VII), and he concludes that a particular substance is a combination of both matter and form, a philosophical theory called hylomorphism . In Book VIII, he distinguishes the matter of the substance as the substratum , or the stuff of which it is composed. For example, the matter of
11869-399: The conflict between rich and poor, commenting that "the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination." He welcomed class-based factions into political life as
12012-399: The data to come to the theory of evolution . Aristotle's writings can seem to modern readers close to implying evolution, but while Aristotle was aware that new mutations or hybridizations could occur, he saw these as rare accidents. For Aristotle, accidents, like heat waves in winter, must be considered distinct from natural causes. He was thus critical of Empedocles's materialist theory of
12155-450: The details of Aristotle's life are not well-established. The biographies written in ancient times are often speculative and historians only agree on a few salient points. Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagira , Chalcidice , about 55 km (34 miles) east of modern-day Thessaloniki . He was the son of Nicomachus , the personal physician of King Amyntas of Macedon , and Phaestis,
12298-426: The discussion around class conflict between employers and employees. It was with bitter sarcasm that Rousseau outlined the class conflict prevailing in his day between masters and their workmen: You have need of me, because I am rich and you are poor. We will therefore come to an agreement. I will permit you to have the honour of serving me, on condition that you bestow on me the little you have left, in return for
12441-486: The earliest study of formal logic, and his conception of it was the dominant form of Western logic until 19th-century advances in mathematical logic . Kant stated in the Critique of Pure Reason that with Aristotle, logic reached its completion. Most of Aristotle's work is probably not in its original form, because it was most likely edited by students and later lecturers. The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into
12584-460: The extravagant consumption of the aristocracy, he remarked that: All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. In the third book of The Wealth of Nations , Smith explains that in the medieval period , after the fall of the Roman Empire, governments were unable to protect commoners, and their property, from
12727-442: The first century AD editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle's works to create the treatise we know by the name Metaphysics . Aristotle called it "first philosophy", and distinguished it from mathematics and natural science (physics) as the contemplative ( theoretikē ) philosophy which is "theological" and studies the divine. He wrote in his Metaphysics (1026a16): If there were no other independent things besides
12870-533: The following. Brood size decreases with (adult) body mass, so that an elephant has fewer young (usually just one) per brood than a mouse. Lifespan increases with gestation period , and also with body mass, so that elephants live longer than mice, have a longer period of gestation, and are heavier. As a final example, fecundity decreases with lifespan, so long-lived kinds like elephants have fewer young in total than short-lived kinds like mice. Aristotle distinguished about 500 species of animals , arranging these in
13013-414: The form of disputes over hours of work, amount paid in wages, division of profits, culture in the workplace, cost of consumer goods, cost of rent, control over parliament or government bureaucracy , and economic inequality . Even a seemingly benign humanitarian program such as government-provided disaster relief can exacerbate class conflict if the relief is seen as being unequally distributed depending on
13156-531: The forms as existing separately from the things that participate in them, Aristotle maintained that universals exist within each thing on which each universal is predicated. So, according to Aristotle, the form of apple exists within each apple, rather than in the world of the forms. Concerning the nature of change ( kinesis ) and its causes, as he outlines in his Physics and On Generation and Corruption ( 319b–320a), he distinguishes coming-to-be ( genesis , also translated as 'generation') from: Coming-to-be
13299-509: The four elements proposed earlier by Empedocles , earth , water , air , and fire , to two of the four sensible qualities, hot, cold, wet, and dry. In the Empedoclean scheme, all matter was made of the four elements, in differing proportions. Aristotle's scheme added the heavenly aether , the divine substance of the heavenly spheres , stars and planets. Aristotle describes two kinds of motion: "violent" or "unnatural motion", such as that of
13442-428: The ground, say) require more force to make them move; and objects pushed with greater force move faster. This would imply the equation incorrect in modern physics. Natural motion depends on the element concerned: the aether naturally moves in a circle around the heavens, while the 4 Empedoclean elements move vertically up (like fire, as is observed) or down (like earth) towards their natural resting places. In
13585-449: The hands of too few men. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) led the U.S. as president from 1801 to 1809 and is considered one of America's Founding Fathers . Regarding the interaction between social classes, he wrote: I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians ) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under
13728-569: The head of the Lyceum, who in turn passed them down to Neleus of Scepsis in Asia Minor. There, the papers remained hidden for protection until they were purchased by the collector Apellicon . In the meantime, many copies of Aristotle's major works had already begun to circulate and be used in the Lyceum of Athens, Alexandria , and later in Rome . With the Prior Analytics , Aristotle is credited with
13871-460: The husbandman, during the term of his military service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. The lands of Italy which had been originally divided among the families of free and indigent proprietors, were insensibly purchased or usurped by the avarice of the nobles; and in the age which preceded the fall of the republic, it was computed that only two thousand citizens were possessed of an independent substance. Hegel similarly states that
14014-440: The image. According to Aristotle, spontaneity and chance are causes of some things, distinguishable from other types of cause such as simple necessity. Chance as an incidental cause lies in the realm of accidental things , "from what is spontaneous". There is also more a specific kind of chance, which Aristotle names "luck", that only applies to people's moral choices. In astronomy , Aristotle refuted Democritus 's claim that
14157-469: The impulse never be wanting to drive men into danger." In the Politics , Aristotle describes the basic dimensions of class conflict: "Again, because the rich are generally few in number, while the poor are many, they appear to be antagonistic, and as the one or the other prevails they form the government.". Aristotle also commented that "poverty is the parent of revolution", but did not consider poverty to be
14300-564: The lawgiver to lead them to freedom from their creditors. The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said that Solon's constitution of the Athenian popular assembly created a political sphere that balanced the competing socio-economic interests of the social classes of Athens: Participating in a war among the social classes of Ancient Greece was a dangerous political endeavour. In his book Parallel Lives , Plutarch wrote of two Spartan kings, Agis and Cleomenes , who "being desirous to raise
14443-465: The methods of analyzing and anticipating crises, form an important part of political science. Several general indicators of crises and methods were proposed for anticipating critical transitions. Among them, one statistical indicator of crisis, a simultaneous increase of variance and correlations in large groups, was proposed for crisis anticipation and may be successfully used in various areas. Its applicability for early diagnosis of political crises
14586-468: The modern zoologist would call vertebrates as the hotter "animals with blood", and below them the colder invertebrates as "animals without blood". Those with blood were divided into the live-bearing ( mammals ), and the egg-laying ( birds , reptiles , fish ). Those without blood were insects, crustacea (non-shelled – cephalopods, and shelled ) and the hard-shelled molluscs ( bivalves and gastropods ). He recognised that animals did not exactly fit into
14729-404: The oceans are then replenished by the cycle of rainfall and river runoff ("I have proved by experiment that salt water evaporated forms fresh and the vapor does not when it condenses condense into sea water again.") Aristotle was the first person to study biology systematically, and biology forms a large part of his writings. He spent two years observing and describing the zoology of Lesbos and
14872-425: The only cause of revolution. In a society where property is distributed equally throughout the community, "the nobles will be dissatisfied, because they think themselves worthy of more than an equal share of honors; and this is often found to be a cause of sedition and revolution." Moreover, Aristotle said that it was wrong for the poor to seize the wealth of the rich and divide it among themselves, but he said that it
15015-400: The pains I shall take to command you. Rousseau argued that the most important task of any government is to fight in class warfare on the side of workmen against their masters, who he said engage in exploitation under the pretence of serving society. Specifically, he believed that governments should actively intervene in the economy to abolish poverty and prevent the accrual of too much wealth in
15158-520: The people, and to restore the noble and just form of government, now long fallen into disuse, [they] incurred the hatred of the rich and powerful, who could not endure to be deprived of the selfish enjoyment to which they were accustomed." It was similarly difficult for the Romans to maintain peace between the upper class, the patricians , and the lower class, the plebs . French Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu notes that this conflict intensified after
15301-417: The plebs, and eventually culminated in a civil war between the patrician Sulla and the populist reformer Marius . Marius had taken the step of enlisting capite censi , the very lowest class of citizens, into the army, for the first time allowing non-land owners into the legions . Of all the notable figures discussed by Plutarch and Tacitus, agrarian reformer Tiberius Gracchus may have most challenged
15444-407: The poet Dante called him "the master of those who know". His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and Jean Buridan . Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics , although always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics . In general,
15587-481: The poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Enlightenment -era historian Edward Gibbon might have agreed with this narrative of Roman class conflict. In the third volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , he relates the origins of the struggle: [T]he plebeians of Rome [...] had been oppressed from the earliest times by the weight of debt and usury; and
15730-426: The poorest will politicise their situation, channelling their frustrations against the rich: Against nature man can claim no right, but once society is established, poverty immediately takes the form of a wrong done to one class by another. Class conflict is most commonly described as occurring within capitalist societies. The conflict manifests itself as clashes between the capitalist class and working class, and takes
15873-550: The power of the Senate by changing the law so that judges were chosen from the ranks of the knights , instead of their social superiors in the senatorial class. Contrary to Shakespeare's depiction of Julius Caesar in the tragedy Julius Caesar , historian Michael Parenti has argued that Caesar was a populist, not a tyrant. In 2003 The New Press published Parenti's The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome. Publishers Weekly said "Parenti [...] narrates
16016-644: The processes, systems and political dynamics of countries and regions of the world, often to raise public awareness or to influence specific governments. Political scientists may provide the frameworks from which journalists, special interest groups, politicians, and the electorate analyze issues. According to Chaturvedy, Political scientists may serve as advisers to specific politicians, or even run for office as politicians themselves. Political scientists can be found working in governments, in political parties, or as civil servants. They may be involved with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or political movements. In
16159-469: The protection of some great lord, and in order to obtain it, to become either his slaves or vassals; or to enter into a league of mutual defence for the common protection of one another. The inhabitants of cities and burghs, considered as single individuals, had no power to defend themselves; but by entering into a league of mutual defence with their neighbours, they were capable of making no contemptible resistance. Political science Political science
16302-463: The public affairs, you & I, & Congress & Assemblies, judges & governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor. In his Federalist No. 10 , James Madison revealed an emphatic concern with
16445-442: The recipient's class. Like Rousseau, the classical liberal Adam Smith believed that the amassing of property in the hands of a minority naturally resulted in a disharmonious state of affairs. He said that "avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property", requiring a government to protect property rights: Wherever there
16588-592: The rich and the landless poor. Hegel described the same phenomenon happening in the impetus to Greek colonisation . Writing in pre-capitalist Europe, the Swiss philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Federalist statesman James Madison across the Atlantic Ocean made significant remarks on the dynamics of class struggle. Later, German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel would also contribute his perspective to
16731-433: The same certainty as experimental science, but it sets out testable hypotheses and constructs a narrative explanation of what is observed. In this sense, Aristotle's biology is scientific. From the data he collected and documented, Aristotle inferred quite a number of rules relating the life-history features of the live-bearing tetrapods (terrestrial placental mammals) that he studied. Among these correct predictions are
16874-439: The seed of a plant in the soil is potentially ( dynamei ) a plant, and if it is not prevented by something, it will become a plant. Potentially, beings can either 'act' ( poiein ) or 'be acted upon' ( paschein ), which can be either innate or learned. For example, the eyes possess the potentiality of sight (innate – being acted upon), while the capability of playing the flute can be possessed by learning (exercise – acting). Actuality
17017-690: The sights one viewed at the Mysteries, "to experience is to learn" ( παθεĩν μαθεĩν ). Aristotle remained in Athens for nearly twenty years before leaving in 348/47 BC after Plato's death. The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the Academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephew Speusippus , although it is possible that the anti-Macedonian sentiments in Athens could have also influenced his decision. Aristotle left with Xenocrates to Assos in Asia Minor , where he
17160-425: The social sciences as a whole, can be described "as a discipline which lives on the fault line between the 'two cultures' in the academy, the sciences and the humanities ." Thus, in most American colleges, especially liberal arts colleges , it would be located within the school or college of arts and sciences . If no separate college of arts and sciences exists, or if the college or university prefers that it be in
17303-450: The struggle's resolution in favor of the working class to be inevitable under plutocratic capitalism. Where societies are socially divided based on status, wealth, or control of social production and distribution, class structures arise and are thus coeval with civilization itself. The rise of class structures eventually leads to class conflict. It is a pattern that has repeated since at least European classical antiquity as illustrated in
17446-421: The study of culture in anthropology. In turn, methodologies that are developed within political science may influence how researchers in other fields, like public health, conceive of and approach political processes and policies. The most common piece of academic writing in generalist political sciences is the research paper, which investigates an original research question . Political science, possibly like
17589-747: The study of more complex forms, namely, syllogisms (in the Analytics ) and dialectics (in the Topics and Sophistical Refutations ). The first three treatises form the core of the logical theory stricto sensu : the grammar of the language of logic and the correct rules of reasoning. The Rhetoric is not conventionally included, but it states that it relies on the Topics . What is today called Aristotelian logic with its types of syllogism (methods of logical argument), Aristotle himself would have labelled "analytics". The term "logic" he reserved to mean dialectics . The word "metaphysics" appears to have been coined by
17732-549: The surrounding seas, including in particular the Pyrrha lagoon in the centre of Lesbos. His data in History of Animals , Generation of Animals , Movement of Animals , and Parts of Animals are assembled from his own observations, statements given by people with specialized knowledge, such as beekeepers and fishermen, and less accurate accounts provided by travellers from overseas. His apparent emphasis on animals rather than plants
17875-443: The sword, fired the houses round the market-place and the lodging-houses, in order to bar their advance." The historian Tacitus would later recount a similar class conflict in the city of Seleucia , in which disharmony between the oligarchs and the commoners would typically lead to each side calling on outside help to defeat the other. Thucydides believed that "as long as poverty gives men the courage of necessity, [...] so long will
18018-470: The time of Homer , and "the upheaving of one of the Aeolian islands , previous to a volcanic eruption ."' Meteorologica lends its name to the modern study of meteorology, but its modern usage diverges from the content of Aristotle's ancient treatise on meteors . The ancient Greeks did use the term for a range of atmospheric phenomena, but also for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Aristotle proposed that
18161-514: The traditional focuses of other social sciences—for example, when sociological norms or psychological biases are connected to political phenomena. In these cases, political science may either inherit their methods of study or develop a contrasting approach. For example, Lisa Wedeen has argued that political science's approach to the idea of culture, originating with Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba and exemplified by authors like Samuel P. Huntington , could benefit from aligning more closely with
18304-473: The traditional rendering will be employed here. Aristotle describes experiments in optics using a camera obscura in Problems , book 15. The apparatus consisted of a dark chamber with a small aperture that let light in. With it, he saw that whatever shape he made the hole, the sun's image always remained circular. He also noted that increasing the distance between the aperture and the image surface magnified
18447-485: The tragic play Coriolanus , fought on the other side of the class war, for the patricians and against the plebs. When grain arrived to relieve a serious shortage in the city of Rome, the plebs made it known that they felt it ought to be divided amongst them as a gift, but Coriolanus stood up in the Senate against this idea on the grounds that it would empower the plebs at the expense of the patricians. This decision would eventually contribute to Coriolanus's undoing when he
18590-602: The undergraduate and postgraduate levels, although most but not all undergraduate level education in these sub-fields of political science is generally found in academic concentrations within a political science academic major . Master's-level programs in public administration are professional degrees covering public policy along with other applied subjects; they are often seen as more linked to politics than any other discipline, which may be reflected by being housed in that department. The main national honor society for college and university students of government and politics in
18733-458: The university's public policy school . Most United States colleges and universities offer BA programs in political science. MA or MAT and PhD or EdD programs are common at larger universities. The term political science is more popular in post-1960s North America than elsewhere while universities predating the 1960s or those historically influenced by them would call the field of study government ; other institutions, especially those outside
18876-673: The upper classes and most championed the cause of the lower classes. In a speech to the common soldiery, he decried their lowly conditions: "The savage beasts," said he, "in Italy, have their particular dens, they have their places of repose and refuge; but the men who bear arms, and expose their lives for the safety of their country, enjoy in the meantime nothing more in it but the air and light; and having no houses or settlements of their own, are constrained to wander from place to place with their wives and children." Following this observation, he remarked that these men "fought indeed and were slain, but it
19019-416: Was also developed. The study of major crises, both political crises and external crises that can affect politics, is not limited to attempts to predict regime transitions or major changes in political institutions. Political scientists also study how governments handle unexpected disasters, and how voters in democracies react to their governments' preparations for and responses to crises. Political science
19162-525: Was demonstrated by the analysis of the prolonged stress period preceding the 2014 Ukrainian economic and political crisis. There was a simultaneous increase in the total correlation between the 19 major public fears in the Ukrainian society (by about 64%) and in their statistical dispersion (by 29%) during the pre-crisis years. A feature shared by certain major revolutions is that they were not predicted. The theory of apparent inevitability of crises and revolutions
19305-526: Was established in 1886 by the Academy of Political Science. In the inaugural issue of Political Science Quarterly , Munroe Smith defined political science as "the science of the state. Taken in this sense, it includes the organization and functions of the state, and the relation of states one to another." As part of a UNESCO initiative to promote political science in the late 1940s, the International Political Science Association
19448-539: Was founded in 1949, as well as national associations in France in 1949, Britain in 1950, and West Germany in 1951. In the 1950s and the 1960s, a behavioral revolution stressing the systematic and rigorously scientific study of individual and group behavior swept the discipline. A focus on studying political behavior, rather than institutions or interpretation of legal texts, characterized early behavioral political science, including work by Robert Dahl , Philip Converse , and in
19591-445: Was impeached following a trial by the tribunes of the plebs . Montesquieu recounts how Coriolanus castigated the tribunes for trying a patrician, when in his mind no one but a consul had that right, although a law had been passed stipulating that all appeals affecting the life of a citizen had to be brought before the plebs. In the first scene of Shakespeare's Coriolanus , a crowd of angry plebs gathers in Rome to denounce Coriolanus as
19734-413: Was invited by his former fellow student Hermias of Atarneus ; he stayed there for a few years and left around the time of Hermias' death. While at Assos, Aristotle and his colleague Theophrastus did extensive research in botany and marine biology , which they later continued at the near-by island of Lesbos . During this time, Aristotle married Pythias , Hermias's adoptive daughter and niece, and had
19877-513: Was said to have stated "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy" – a reference to Athens's trial and execution of Socrates . He died in Chalcis, Euboea of natural causes later that same year, having named his student Antipater as his chief executor and leaving a will in which he asked to be buried next to his wife. Aristotle left his works to Theophrastus, his successor as
20020-425: Was the welfare of the ordinary workers who make up society and provide for it: No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged. Regarding
20163-457: Was to maintain the luxury and the wealth of other men." Cicero believed that Tiberius Gracchus's reforming efforts saved Rome from tyranny, arguing: Tiberius Gracchus (says Cicero) caused the free-men to be admitted into the tribes , not by the force of his eloquence, but by a word, by a gesture; which had he not effected, the republic, whose drooping head we are at present scarce able to uphold, would not even exist. Tiberius Gracchus weakened
20306-528: Was to tilt the balance of power in favour of the patricians. However, in an attempt to resolve a conflict between the patricians and the plebs, the dictator Camillus used his power of dictatorship to coerce the Senate into giving the plebs the right to choose one of the two consuls. Tacitus believed that the increase in Roman power spurred the patricians to expand their power over more and more cities. This process, he felt, exacerbated pre-existing class tensions with
20449-588: Was widely disbelieved until the 19th century. He gives accurate descriptions of the four-chambered fore-stomachs of ruminants , and of the ovoviviparous embryological development of the hound shark . He notes that an animal's structure is well matched to function so birds like the heron (which live in marshes with soft mud and live by catching fish) have a long neck, long legs, and a sharp spear-like beak, whereas ducks that swim have short legs and webbed feet. Darwin , too, noted these sorts of differences between similar kinds of animal, but unlike Aristotle used
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