Познавательные возможности политологии: к постановке вопроса о российской политической науке

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to raise the question of the cognitive capabilities of political science and to what extent, in this regard, the methodological tools of political science are an adequate means for studying Russian reality. The methodology of the research was a politico-philosophical approach, which used a retrospective method and discourse analysis. The specificity of the social sciences and humanities implies the existence of value positions of the subject of cognition and determines the practice-oriented orientation of his research activity. The model of reality reconstructed by the scientist is based on a value-colored picture of the world, which directly or implicitly influences the interpretation of facts. Political science, being a part of social and humanitarian knowledge, is not devoid of its specificity and is also based on a certain model of the worldview - a paradigm. The science of politics was formed in the bosom of Western society, taking as a basis the corresponding paradigm of thinking. At a certain point, comparative studies begins to occupy a central position in the study of politics, in fact identifying the whole of political science with itself. Its distinctive feature, which has not been overcome to this day, is the attitude to compare the entire diversity of the political world with its own "ideal" of due. Accordingly, everything that does not fit into this value picture of the world is recognized as hostile, backward, imperfect. On such paradigmatic grounds, the study of Russian political life has been carried out for a long time. By adopting such a way of explaining the political sphere of Russian society, we put ourselves in the position of catching up, trying to adjust our own reality to the standards that were formed in other cultural and historical conditions. Based on this, the question arises about the application of the methodology of political science to Russian conditions. Conclusions: the question posed in the work may affect the change of the paradigm in force in Russian political science or, at least, the clarification of its methodological foundations, which opens up a wide scope for research for domestic social scientists.