Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Empirical politics must be kept in bounds by democratic institutions, which leave it up to the subjects of the experiment to say whether it shall be tried, and to stop it if they dislike it, because, in politics, there is a distinction, unknown to science, between Truth and Justice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Politics should not be treated as a science because it involves values that cannot be measured objectively.
W. H. Auden's quote highlights the inherent complexities and ethical dimensions of politics, arguing that unlike the sciences, which thrive on empirical separation of theory from practice, political matters involve human values and collective consent. He advocates for a democratic framework where people have the power to assess and challenge political experiments, implying that beliefs in the scientific nature of politics can lead to oppressive regimes because they neglect the moral and subjective aspects of governance.
Themes
PoliticsScienceDemocracyTruthJusticeTyranny
In practice
Example use cases
In a political science class discussing the limitations of empiricism in governance.
More from W. H. Auden
All quotes βThat the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.
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Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.
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History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
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Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
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'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
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