Political writing requires partisan passion, not detached scientific objectivity

Evidence

Machiavelli is not merely a scientist: he is a partisan, a man of powerful passions, an active politician, who wishes to create a new balance of forces and therefore cannot help concerning himself with what “ought to be” (not of course in a moralistic sense). Hence the question cannot be posed in these terms, it is more complex. It is one, that is to say, of seeing whether what “ought to be” is arbitrary or necessary; whether it is concrete will on the one hand or idle fancy, yearning, daydream on the other. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 727

Categorization

• XREF: The scientist-versus-partisan distinction foreshadows later critical-theory debates over whether scholarship on Islamophobia can or should be neutral, and connects to Gramsci’s organic intellectual. — connects to: Scientific uncertainty reflects political context, not deficient understanding — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 684