Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T01:14:01.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social scientific inquiry and meta-theoretical fantasy: the case of International Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2011

JOHN G. GUNNELL
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The turn to the philosophy of scientific realism as a meta-theory for the study of International Relations manifests a reluctance to confront the basic problem of the relationship between philosophy and social scientific inquiry. Despite the realists' rejection of traditional empiricism, and particularly the instrumentalist account of scientific theory, the enthusiasm for realism neglects many of the same problems that, more than a generation earlier, were involved in the social scientific embrace of positivism. One of these problems was a lack of understanding regarding the character and history of the philosophy of natural science and its relationship and applicability to the study of social phenomena. Proponents of realism have also neither adequately articulated and defended realism as a philosophical position, and distinguished it from other perspectives, nor confronted the fundamental challenge to realism and other foundationalist philosophies which has been mounted by the contemporary critique of traditional representational philosophy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 1447 - 1469
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See, for example, Shapiro, Ian, Political Criticism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990)Google Scholar ; Topper, Keith, The Disorder of Political Inquiry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

2 See, for example, Harré, Rom, Varieties of Realism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986)Google Scholar .

3 Putnam, Hilary, The Many Faces of Realism (La Salle: Open Court, 1987)Google Scholar .

4 For example, Trigg, Roger, Reality at Risk (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989)Google Scholar .

5 Devitt, Michael, Realism and Truth (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984)Google Scholar .

6 Dummett, Michael, Truth and Other Enigmas (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978)Google Scholar ; The Logical Basis of Metaphysics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991)Google Scholar .

7 See Keat, Russell and Urry, John, Social Theory as Science (London: Routledge, 1975)Google Scholar ; Outhwaite, William, Realism, Hermeneutics, and Critical Theory (New York: St. Martin's, 1975)Google Scholar ; Layder, Derek, The Realist Image in Social Science (London: Macmillan, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Sayer, A., Realism and Social Science. London: Sage, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Lenin, V. I., Materialism and Empirio-criticism (London: Laurence and Wishart, 1950)Google Scholar .

8 Hahn, Hans, Neurath, Otto, and Carnap, Rudolf, The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle, in Sakar, Sahotra (ed.), The Emergence of Logical Empiricism (New York: Garland, 1996)Google Scholar . See Gunnell, John G., ‘Ideology and the Philosophy of Science: An American Misunderstanding’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 14 (2009), pp. 317–337CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

9 Hempel, Carl, Aspects of Scientific Explanation (New York: Free Press, 1965)Google Scholar .

10 For a discussion of the European origins of logical positivism, its migration into the field of political science, and its account of scientific explanation, see Gunnell, John G., The Descent of Political Theory: The Genealogy of an American Vocation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993)Google Scholar .

11 The Image of Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar .

12 Progress and its Problems (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar ; Science and Relativism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990)Google Scholar .

13 Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962)Google Scholar .

14 Sellars, Wilfrid, Science, Perception, and Reality (New York: Humanities Press, 1963)Google Scholar ; Rorty, Richard, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979)Google Scholar ; Goodman, Nelson, Ways of World-Making (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1978)Google Scholar .

15 Hanson, Russell Norwood, Patterns of Discovery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958)Google Scholar .

16 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, On Certainty (New York: Harper, 1969)Google Scholar ; Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001)Google Scholar ; Davidson, Donald, Essays on Actions and Events (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar ; Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)Google Scholar .

17 Boyd, Richard, Gasper, Philip, and Trout, J. D. (eds), Philosophy of Science (Cambridge: MIT, 1991)Google Scholar .

18 Fine, Arthur, ‘The Natural Ontological Attitude’, in Leplin, Jarrett (ed.), Scientific Realism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)Google Scholar .

19 Winch, Peter, The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958)Google Scholar .

20 For an extended discussion of relativism and its relationship to realist philosophy, see Gunnell, John G., The Orders of Discourse: Philosophy, Social Science, and Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998)Google Scholar .

21 Hollis, Martin and Lukes, Steven (eds), Rationality and Relativism (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982)Google Scholar .

22 Searle, John, The Construction of Social Reality (New York: Free Press, 1995)Google Scholar .

23 Bloom, Alan, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988)Google Scholar .

24 Niiniluoto, Ilkka, Critical Scientific Realism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)Google Scholar .

25 Norris, Christopher, Reclaiming Truth (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1996)Google Scholar ; Resources of Realism (New York: St. Martin's, 1997)Google Scholar ; Hilary Putnam (New York: Macmillan, 2002)Google Scholar .

26 Bhaskar, Roy, A Realist Theory of Science (New York: Humanities Press, 1973)Google Scholar ; Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation (London: Verso, 1986)Google Scholar ; Archer, M. A., Bhaskar, R., and Lawson, T., Critical Realism: Essential Readings (London: Routledge, 1998)Google Scholar ; Danermark, B. et al. , Explaining Society: Critical Realism in the Social Sciences (London: Routledge, 2002)Google Scholar .

27 See, for example, Onuf, Nicolas, World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory in International Relations (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989)Google Scholar ; Wendt, Alexander, ‘Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics’, International Organization, 46 (1992), pp. 391–425CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Fierke, Karin M. and Jørgensen, Knud Eric, (eds) Constructing International Relations (Armonk: Sharpe, 2001)Google Scholar .

28 See, for example, Gregor, A. James, An Introduction to Metapolitics (New York: Free Press, 1971)Google Scholar ; Gunnell, John G., Philosophy, Science, and Political Inquiry (Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press, 1975)Google Scholar .

29 Joseph, Jonathan, Kurki, Milja, Wight, Colin, Chernoff, Fred, Brown, Chris, and Keeley, James F., ‘Scientific and Critical Realism in International Relations’, Millennium, 35 (2007), pp. 343–440CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

30 Smith, Steve and Hollis, Martin, Explanation and Understanding in International Relations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990)Google Scholar .

31 Wendt, Alexander, Social Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)Google Scholar .

32 Wendt, , Social Theory of International Relations, pp. 47–48, 58Google Scholar .

33 Putnam, Hilary, The Three-fold Cord: Mind, Body, and the World (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)Google Scholar .

34 Wendt, , Social Theory of International Relations, pp. 53, 66Google Scholar .

35 Patomäki, Heikki, After International Relations: Critical realism and the (re)construction of world politics (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 5, 7–9, 120, 123, 144CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

36 Wight, Colin, Agents, Structures, and International Relations (Cambridge: University Press, 2006), p. 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

37 Giddens, Anthony, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (University of California Press, 1984), pp. xvii, xxiiGoogle Scholar .

38 Wight, Colin, ‘A Manifesto for Scientific Realism in IR: Assuming the Can-Opener won't Work’, Millennium, 35 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

39 Chernoff, Fred, The Power of International Theory (New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 206, 54, 177Google Scholar .

40 Chernoff, Fred, Theory and Meta-Theory in International Relations: Contending Accounts (New York: Macmillan-Palgrave, 2007), pp. 79, 131, 193CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

41 See Gunnell, John G., ‘Political Inquiry and the Metapractical Voice: Weber and Oakeshott’, Political Research Quarterly, 35 (2009), pp. 3–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; ‘Can Social Science Be Just?’, The Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 39 (2009), pp. 595–621CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

42 See Hutchinson, Phil, Read, Rupert and Sharrock, Wes, There is No Such Thing as a Social Science (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008)Google Scholar ; Sharrock, Wes and Read, Rupert, Kuhn: Philosopher of Scientific Revolution (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002)Google Scholar .

43 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Culture and Value (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 15Google Scholar .

44 Diamond, Cora, The Realistic Spirit in Philosophy: Wittgenstein, Philosophy, and the Mind (Cambridge: MIT, 1991)Google Scholar .