You included political scientists both in group of people who will efficiently handle the question and group of those who will not, was that a typo?
I meant that political scientists can handle it alone. Without the aid of psychologists and game theorists, more effectively than if they employed the methods of game theorists and psychologists.
If you mean such things as hypothesis testing, repeatability of experiments, demands on clarity and precision of formulations, mathematical rigor—I find it hard to imagine how these things could be transferred to politics, for different reasons.
It is certainly hard to imagine. But satellites which scan over facial expressions to measure net happiness (totally doable today), and decision theory, provide at least a little bit of imaginative fuel as to how it might be done. Applying the scientific method in a new field is always awkward at first; that’s the burden of a new field. But I find it highly probable, that the best way to make progress in filling in the utilities and probabilities of the political decision tree is through empiricism.
Of course, there has to be such a tree, since some political decisions are better than others. The political utility of a given state may not be exactly specifiable, but that the utility of living in a place with accessible education, out weights that of living in a place where all else remains the same, but education is inaccessible, is rather clear.
I meant that political scientists can handle it alone. Without the aid of psychologists and game theorists, more effectively than if they employed the methods of game theorists and psychologists.
It is certainly hard to imagine. But satellites which scan over facial expressions to measure net happiness (totally doable today), and decision theory, provide at least a little bit of imaginative fuel as to how it might be done. Applying the scientific method in a new field is always awkward at first; that’s the burden of a new field. But I find it highly probable, that the best way to make progress in filling in the utilities and probabilities of the political decision tree is through empiricism.
Of course, there has to be such a tree, since some political decisions are better than others. The political utility of a given state may not be exactly specifiable, but that the utility of living in a place with accessible education, out weights that of living in a place where all else remains the same, but education is inaccessible, is rather clear.
I’ll address 1 − 4 when i get back from school.