The ambivalent relationship between political theory understood as a sub-discipline within political science and political theory as an interdisciplinary theoretical activity with a long-standing historical tradition has been well documented. The schism between political theory and political science is seen by some as a recent tragedy within political science, one directly traceable to the absence of great contemporary thinkers within the discourse of political thought and perpetuated by the lack of theorizing common among most practicing political scientists. In an interdisciplinary team-taught honors course, students were introduced to the three most interesting philosophical controversies present today in empirical political theory: (1) the question of whether individual or structural models of explanation best explain human political activity; (2) the possibility of having a value free model of theoretical explanation; and (3) the question of whether theory properly arises out of empirical research or is in some sense presupposed by such research. Rather than abstractly arguing the merits of specific methods of analysis, the students used two of the most often cited alternatives of human behavior defended today in social science, the Stimulus-Response model and the Stimulus-Organism-Response model. The students are then instructed to develop research programs that will reflect the different approaches of these two contrasting methodologies and to compare the results gathered during the course of the semester. (BZ)