1. Many political scientists do not come in regular contact with the literature of biopolitics except for the occasional article in the APSR or in the regional journals of the discipline. The appearance of Coming's book length study (forthcoming) and the preparation of a book length study by Roger Masters (in preparation) will provide better targets for criticism. We can anticipate that further attention will be given to biopolitics as a result of our sustained participation at professional meetings and the availability of a new journal devoted to biopolitical research.
2. The best summary of the current situation in philosophy of science is Suppe (1977). See also Toulmin (1977) and Gunnell (1975). The positivist or “received view” has been devastatingly criticized by historians and philosophers of science in the wake of work in analytic philosophy (influenced by the later Wittgenstein), phenomenology, and critical theory (see Adorno , et al., 1976).
3. A philosopher of science, Feyerabend Paul (1970), once argued that inquiry is characterized by the tension created within science by scientists holding simultaneously to the principle of tenacity (sticking to and defending a point of view against criticism) and the principle of proliferation (generating new ideas, hypotheses, concepts, etc. which challenge the prevailing view). There are a number of salient concepts in biopolitics that need refinement, further application, and criticism. A sample list might include: basic needs, group selection, emergence, hierarchy, consciousness, hypostatization, synergism, functionalism, attention structure, and dispersal. Especially important is the task of specifying units and levels of analysis and the movement from studies of individual behavior (biobehavioralism) to macro–level studies (sociobiology and systems theory). See Scott (1982) and Charlesworth (1982) for recommendations for research strategies and key concepts.
4. Biopolitical research in this area is much needed. The study of political development and modernization is conceptually and theoretically impoverished. Despite recent attempts to be more diachronic and longitudinal (and these are largely found in dependency theory and Wallerstein's “world system” approach) political development studies are largely ahistorical ( Hines , 1976). The recent work of Corning (forthcoming), Philips (1981), Masters (n.d.), Willhoite (1980), and Hines (1981) underscores the importance of taking the long view of political evolution in the comparative study of political change. See also the recommendations of Lasswell (1968). Pettman's (1981) recent attempt to bring together hermeneutics and empirical political science in the study of liberal values and international politics provides another example of how biopolitics, political theory, and policy science can be brought together to illuminate such key problems of political development as the relationship between hunger and freedom.
5. This is the stated purpose of the forthcoming “Dialogues in Political Science” panels of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. This kind of critique of selected areas within political science has already begun. Examples include the biobehavioral critique of the voting behavior/survey research literature by both John Wahlke and those at Stony Brook, the critique of political socialization research by Peterson and White, the continuing development of the judicial behavior field by G. Schubert, and the critique of development studies referred to in note 7 above.