The Political Science Department aims, first, to show the importance of studying politics as part of a liberal education and, second, to complement practical interest in politics with habits of reflection and careful analysis.

We emphasize discussion among students and instructors based on texts and other materials examined jointly. We encourage personal contact and, wherever appropriate, independent study. We want our students to be both critical and constructive, able to confront questions of rights and obligations, to address questions of moral responsibility informed by comprehensive knowledge, to distinguish between tested and untested opinions.

Our courses, and our extensive program of public lectures, are designed to assist students in understanding and interpreting human affairs comprehensively. We address the intersection of politics with economics, science and technology, religion, culture and art. We are committed to interdisciplinary study while maintaining the integrity and coherence of our own discipline. We seek to provide balance between the historical and the contemporary, the local and the international, the empirical and the philosophical. We subscribe to the importance of experiential learning to complement classroom studies, and we expect students in internship courses to analyze their experiences, framing them in historical and philosophical perspective. We encourage international study. We pay attention to diverse methods of political analysis, noting that there is no single method that is adequate to gaining political wisdom. All our courses emphasize skills in reading, writing and critical thinking as essential to the process of evaluating ideas, policies and methodologies.