Drogi poszukiwania tożsamości „nauki o polityce”
Ways of searching for the identity of ‘political science’

Summary/Abstract: Abstract: The author begins his analysis with looking at the notion of identity, moving on to that of the identity of an academic discipline. His starting point is to choose a typology of identities of a discipline that distinguishes the identity of the object, its methodological identity, and an identity stemming from the history of development of the discipline. The author primarily focuses on the analysis of the identity of the object, while giving a brief account of the latter two. He concludes by observing that the object of research in the social sciences is to a large extent polymorphic, as evidenced by multidimensional, multifaceted and multilayered analysis. Nevertheless, the author does not give up his further considerations on the object of political science since, under the circumstances of the emerging information society, its delimitation is becoming an organizational and educational necessity. He starts the characteristics of studies into the realm of politics by presenting three standpoints, or three assumptions. (1) It is possible to distinguish a homogenous class of political events and processes. (2) The object of political science is not a distinguishable ‘entity’. (3) The identity of the object of political science is determined by other factors, such as relations or attributes. Objective difficulties encountered in the process of defining the identity of the object and methodology make the author take the direction of searching for the gist and definition of ‘politicality’. The final part of the paper consists of a brief presentation of the concepts by C. Schmitt, Ch. Mouffe, U. Beck and A. Giddens, and the presentation of the author’s own idea of ‘politicality’.

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