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> I wouldn't call Eric Kauffman a "scientist," and I don't think Kauffman would call himself one either. Back in October, during an interview with Tara Henley,
by skissane 3y ago
> I wouldn't call Eric Kauffman a "scientist," and I don't think Kauffman would call himself one either.
Back in October, during an interview with Tara Henley, [0] he said "I'm a political scientist..." And, the topic of the interview is how he's leaving the University of London to start up a new "Centre for Heterodox Social Science" at the University of Buckingham.
"Political science" is the standard term for Kauffman's academic discipline, and so not only does he call himself a "political scientist", it is standard for journalists reviewing his books (etc) to call him that too, see [1]
> Lots of people study things, without properly being called scientists. Historians, archeologists, etc.
Well, Merriam-Webster defines [2] "archaeology" as "the scientific study of material remains (such as tools, pottery, jewelry, stone walls, and monuments) of past human life and activities" (my emphasis), and very many archaeologists do consider their discipline to be a "science": for example, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center defines archaeology as "the science that seeks to learn about past humans and their culture from the material remains that were left behind" [3]
Likewise, the British philosopher and historian R. G. Collingwood's definition of history as "the science of res gestae, the attempt to answer questions about human actions done in the past" is frequently quoted.
[0] https://tarahenley.substack.com/p/transcript-eric-kaufmann https://tarahenley.substack.com/p/transcript-eric-kaufmann
[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-political-scientist-defends-white-identity-politics-eric-kaufmann-whiteshift-book https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-political-scientist... https://www.abc.net.au/sundaynights/stories/s3003131.htm https://www.abc.net.au/sundaynights/stories/s3003131.htm https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/eric-kaufmann-closed-refugee-camp/589663/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/eric-kaufm...
[2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archaeology https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archaeology
[3] https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/process-of-archaeology/ https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/process-of-archaeology/