The criticism levelled by Gerard de Vries against the political theory implicit in science studies offers a good occasion to render more precise the different meanings the word " politics " may have in the literature on the " politics of science ". It is certainly time to use the same methods that have modified the theory of science so much, on the practice of politics. The commentary on de Vries's paper offers just such a clarification by distinguishing five successive meanings of the adjective " political ".