Why are ontology and epistemology important? (4)
- All theoretical positions dependent on assumptions about ontology + epistemology
- On basis of these assumptions, researchers come to see the world in different ways
- In social world always more than 1 story to tell
- Different underpinnings account for the character + content of different types of theory
What is ontology? (4)
- Studies the nature of reality
- Concerned with whether or not social reality exists independently of human understanding + interpretation
- Is there a shared social reality or multiple context-specific realities?
- All theories make assumptions about what matters most in the social world
What is epistemology?
The study of knowledge and justified belief
2 key ontologies in international relations
Material
Ideational
What is a material ontology? (3)
- Claims to see the world as it really is
- Externality: That things exist in the world independently of the knowledge practices through which people come to apprehend them
- Determinacy: Things in the world have a determinate character, which sets limits on kinds of knowledge claims that can be validly constructed about them
What is an ideational ontology? (3)
- Idealism maintains that reality can only be understood via the human mind and socially constructed meanings.
- There are no universal truths of the social world
- Max Weber: one cannot disentangle the world from the knowledge activities we use to study it
Name 2 positivist theories
Neorealism
Neoliberalism
Name 3 interpretivist theories
Feminism
Postcolonialism
Poststructuralism
What is positivism?
- Believes in objective laws of the social world that underpin interactions between states
- These laws can be empirically tested or falsified
- Reduces the ontological complexity of the social world to those aspects that can be measured and observed
What is the dominant epistemological approach to IR?
Positivism
Why does positivism tend to ignore social complexities? (2)
- In pursuit of useful insights they tend to isolate features which can provide the kind of knowledge they think is most valuable
- Waltz: our theories need to be useful, not true
What is interpretivism? (3)
- Knowledge is not objective, but intersubjective
- Constructed by an epistemic community of scholars embedded in a particular social + historical period
- Argue that theory is always for someone, and for some purpose (Cox)
What was the fourth debate in IR? (2)
- Fourth debate between positivism and post-positivism emerged in late 1980s
- Centred on epistemological + ontological basis of IR
In what way are neoliberals and neorealists two views of the same approach? (3)
- Both assume similar positions regarding the international system
- States are main actors, they act rationally and international anarchy shapes their behaviour
- Most notably share similar methodology, epistemology + ontology
How does positivism restrict the range of permissible ontological claims? (3)
- Limits the range of valid ontological claims
- Social processes (culture, values and norms) between state actors are deemed to be peripheral
What unites the post-positivist epistemological approach? (2)
- Reality is a subjective creation of people
- Explains why things are the way they are as opposed to merely describing them
How does post positivism promote a normative approach to IR? (3)
- Rather than merely focusing on high politics, postpositivism promotes a normative approach to IR
- Goes ‘beyond’ the Westphalian model
- Opening the debate towards issues of poverty, disease, gender, migration…
