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PROFESSOR LAZARSFELD ONCE REFERRED TO SOCIOLOGY AS BEING IN A sense a residuary legatee, the surviving part of a very general study, out of which specializations have successively been shaped.The same might be said of political science. In the West the first deliberate and reflective studies of political life were made in Greece at the end of the th century BC, and in the succeeding century. The histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, some of the pamphlets attributed to Xenophon, above all the normative and empirical studies of Plato and Aristotle were among the direct ancestors of contemporary political science. Parallel examples are to be found in the intellectual history of China, India and Islam. It seems that at certain stages in the development of great societies questions of legitimacy, power and leadership assume supreme importance; and intense intellectual effort, using the best analytical tools available, is devoted to the study of man as brought to a focus in the study of politics.

AT THE 1980 AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION MEETING IN WASHINGTON, A NEW ASSOCIATION DEDICATED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF AN INTEGRATED BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE IN THE POLITICAL SCIENCES WAS FORMED, THE ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES. THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE HISTORY AND RATIONALE BEHIND THIS INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY AND SOME OF OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION.

COLLEGE STUDENTS TODAY OFTEN LACK BASIC ACADEMIC SKILLS, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE SKILLS IS CLOSELY & INEXTRICABLY INTERWOVEN WITH TEACHING AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE, & EVERY COLLEGE INSTRUCTOR MUST COMBINE TEACHING HIS/HER DISCPLINE WITH WORK ON THESE SKILLS, INCLUDING WORK WITH STUDENT PAPERS. VARIETY OF TEACHING TECHNIQUES ARE DESCRIBED TO SHOW HOW AUTHORS DOES THIS IN TWO POLITICAL SCIENCE COURSES.