Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T19:16:09.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

IR and the false promise of philosophical foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Nuno P. Monteiro  and
Keven G. Ruby
Nuno P. Monteiro*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, The University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Keven G. Ruby*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, The University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
*
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

International Relations (IR) is uneasy about its status as a ‘science’. Throughout a long history of attempts to legitimate the field as ‘scientific’, IR scholars have imported multifarious positions from the Philosophy of Science (PoS) in order to ground IR on an unshakable foundation. Alas, no such unshakable foundation exists. The PoS is itself a contested field of study, in which no consensus exists on the proper foundation for science. By importing foundational divisions into IR, the ‘science’ debate splits the discipline into contending factions and justifies the absence of dialogue between them. As all foundations require a leap of faith, imperial foundational projects are always vulnerable to challenge and therefore unable to resolve the science question in IR. In this article, we seek to dissolve rather than solve the ‘science’ debate in IR and the quest for philosophical foundations. We argue that IR scholars should adopt an ‘attitude towards’ rather than a ‘position in’ the irresolvable foundational debate. Specifically, we advocate an attitude of ‘foundational prudence’ that is open-minded about what the PoS can offer IR, while precluding imperial foundational projects, which attempt to impose a single meta-theoretical framework on the discipline. This requires knowing what PoS arguments can and cannot do. As such, foundational prudence is post-foundational rather than anti-foundational. A prudent attitude towards philosophical foundations encourages theoretical and methodological pluralism, making room for a question-driven IR while de-escalating intra-disciplinary politics.

Keywords

Philosophy of Sciencemeta-theoryfoundationsepistemologyontology
Type
Original Article
Information
International Theory , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 15 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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

Alspector-Kelly, M. (2003), ‘The NOAer’s dilemma: constructive empiricism and the natural ontological attitude’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 33(3): 307–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashley, R.K. (1986), The Poverty of Neorealism, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Bates, S.R.Jenkins, L. (2007), ‘Teaching and learning ontology and epistemology in political science’, Politics 27(1): 55–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhaskar, R. (1998), The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences, 3rd edn., New York, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Boyd, R. (2002), ‘Scientific realism’, in E.N. Zalta (ed.), Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford, CA: The Metaphysical Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. Retrieved 23 January 2008 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realismGoogle Scholar
Boyd, R., Gasper, P.Trout, J.D. (eds) (1991), The Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Brady, H.E.Collier, D. (2004), Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Brandon, E.P. (1997), ‘California unnatural: on Fine’s natural ontological attitude’, Philosophical Quarterly 47(187): 232–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, C. (1994), ‘ “Turtles all the way down”: anti-foundationalism, critical theory and international relations’, Millennium 23(2): 213–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D. (1998), Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity, revised edn., Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Chernoff, F. (2002), ‘Scientific Realism as a meta-theory of international politics’, International Studies Quarterly 46: 189–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochran, M. (2002), ‘Deweyan pragmatism and post-positivist social science in IR’, Millennium 31(3): 525–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crasnow, S.L. (2000), ‘How natural can ontology be?’, Philosophy of Science 67: 114–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, G. (2008), ‘Ology schmology: a post-structuralist approach’, Politics 28(1): 57–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dessler, D. (1989), ‘What’s at stake in the agent structure debate’, International Organization 43: 441–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dessler, D. (1999), ‘Constructivism within a positivist social science’, Review of International Studies 25(1): 123–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doty, R.L. (2000), ‘Desire all the way down’, Review of International Studies 26: 137–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Deffand, M. (1989), Lettres à Voltaire, Paris: Rivage Poche/Petite Bibliothèque.Google Scholar
Elman, C.Elman, M.F. (2003), Progress in International Relations Theory: Appraising the Field, Cambridge: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Y.H.Mansbach, R.W. (2003), The Elusive Quest Continues: Theory and Global Politics, New York, NY, USA: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Festenstein, M. (2002), ‘Pragmatism’s boundaries’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 31(3): 549–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, A. (1984), ‘And not anti-realism either’, Nous 18(1): 51–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fine, A. (1986), The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism and the Quantum Theory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fine, A. (1991), ‘Piecemeal realism’, Philosophical Studies 61(1/2): 79–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, A. (1996), ‘Science made up: constructivist sociology of scientific knowledge’, in P. Galison and D. Stump (eds), The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power, Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Fine, A. (2007), ‘Relativism, pragmatism and the practice of science’, in C. Misak (ed.), The New Pragmatists, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1979), Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1980), Power/Knowledge, New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1953), Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gunnell, J.G. (1995), ‘Realizing theory: the Philosophy of Science revisited’, Journal of Politics 57(4): 923–940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S. (1988), ‘The toad in the garden: Thatcherism amongst the theorists’, in C. Nelson and L. Grosberg (eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, Urbana, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Hay, C. (2007), ‘Does ontology trump epistemology? Notes on the directional dependence of ontology and epistemology in political analysis’, Politics 27(1): 55–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollis, M. (1994), The Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollis, M. (1996), ‘The last post?’, in S. Smith, K. Booth and M. Zalewski (eds), International Theory: Positivism and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hollis, M.Smith, S. (1990), Explaining and Understanding in International Relations, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Holsti, K.J. (1989), ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, which are the fairest theories of all’, International Studies Quarterly 33(2): 255–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honderitch, T. (1995a), ‘Epistemology’, in T. Honderitch (ed.), Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Honderitch, T. (1995b), ‘Foundationalism’, in T. Honderitch (ed.), Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Honderitch, T. (1995c), ‘Ontology’, in T. Honderitch (ed.), Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Houghton, D.P. (2008), ‘Positivism “versus” postmodernism: does epistemology make a difference?’, International Politics 45: 115–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, P.T. (2008), ‘Foregrounding ontology: dualism, monism, and IR theory’, Review of International Studies 34(1): 129–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzenstein, P.Sil, R. (2008), ‘Eclectic theorizing in the study and practice of international relations’, in C. Reus-Smit and D. Snidal (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
King, G., Keohane, R.O.Verba, S. (1994), Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kivinen, O.Piiroinen, T. (2004), ‘The relevance of ontological commitments in social science: realist and pragmatist viewpoints’, Journal of the Theory of Social Behavior 34(3): 231–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knorr Cetina, K. (1999), Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge, Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1996), Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd edn., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kukla, A. (1994), ‘Scientific realism, scientific practice, and the natural ontological attitude’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45(4): 955–975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurki, M. (2006), ‘Causes of a divided discipline: rethinking the concept of cause in international relations theory’, European Journal of International Relations 32(2): 189–216.Google Scholar
Lapid, Y. (1989), ‘The third debate: on the prospects of international theory in a post-positivist era’, International Studies Quarterly 33(3): 235–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locher, B.Prügel, E. (2001), ‘Feminism and constructivism: worlds apart or sharing the middle ground?’, International Studies Quarterly 45: 111–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, P.K. (2003), ‘Useful fiction or miracle maker: the competing epistemological foundations of rational choice theory’, American Political Science Review 97(4): 551–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maliniak, D., Oakes, A., Peterson, S.Tierney, M.J. (2007), The View from the Ivory Tower: TRIP Survey of International Relations Faculty in the United States and Canada, Williamsburg, VA, USA: Program on the Theory and Practice of International Relations, College of William and Mary.Google Scholar
March, D.Furlong, P. (2002), ‘A skin not a sweater: epistemology and ontology in political science’, in D. Marsh and G. Toker (eds), Theory and Methods in Political Science, New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Musgrave, A. (1988), ‘The ultimate argument for Scientific Realism’, in R. Nola (ed.), Relativism and Realism in Science, Boston, MA, USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Navon, E. (2001), ‘The “third debate” revisited’, Review of International Studies 27: 611–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, M. (1996), ‘The continued significance of positivism?’, in S. Smith, K. Booth and M. Zalewski (eds), International Theory: Positivism and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Okasha, S. (2002), Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patomäki, H.Wight, C. (2000), ‘After postpositivism? The promises of critical realism’, International Studies Quarterly 44(2): 213–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pepinsky, T.B. (2005), ‘From agents to outcomes: simulation in international relations’, European Journal of International Relations 11(3): 367–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, R.Reus-Smitt, C. (1998), ‘Dangerous liaisons? Critical international relations theory and constructivism’, European Journal of International Relations 4(3): 259–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, H. (1978), Meaning and the Moral Sciences, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1981), Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, H. (1983), ‘Why there isn’t a ready made world’, in H. Putnam (ed.), Realism and Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rorty, R. (1979), Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1995), Philosophy of Social Science, 2nd edn., Boulder: Westview.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (2000), Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rouse, J. (1988). ‘Arguing for the Natural Ontological Attitude’, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1 (Contributed Papers), pp. 294–301.Google Scholar
Rouse, J. (2002), ‘Vampires: social constructivism, realism, and other philosophical undead’, History and Theory 41(1): 60–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruse, M. (1981), ‘Review of Roy Bhaskar, the possibility of naturalism: a philosophical critique of the contemporary human sciences’, ISIS 72(3): 493–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sankey, H. (2001), ‘Scientific Realism: an elaboration and a defence’, Theoria 98: 35–54.Google Scholar
Sankey, H. (2008), ‘Scientific Realism and the inevitability of science’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39(2): 259–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schatzki, T.R. (1988), ‘The nature of social reality’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 49(2): 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, B.C. (1997), ‘Further ahead or further behind? The debate over positivism’, Mershon International Studies Review 41(1): 107–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, B.C. (2002), ‘On the history and historiography of international relations’, in W. Carlsnaes, T. Risse and B.A. Simmons (eds), Handbook of International Relations, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Sellars, W. (1963), Science, Perception and Reality, New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Shapin, S. (1994), A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapin, S. (2008), The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapin, S.Schaffer, S. (1985), Leviathan and the Air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life Princeton, Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, S. (1996), ‘Positivism and beyond’, in S. Smith, K. Booth and M. Zalewski (eds), International Theory: Positivism and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, S. (2000), ‘Wendt’s world’, Review of International Studies 26: 151–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinhoff, G. (1986), ‘Internal realism, truth and understanding’, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 352–363.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, B. (1980), The Scientific Image, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. (1989), Laws and Symmetry, Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waltz, K.N. (1979), Theory of International Politics, 1st edn., New York, USA: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wendt, A. (1987), ‘The agent structure problem in international relations theory’, International Organization 41(3): 335–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, A. (1992), ‘Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics’, International Organization 46: 391–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, A. (1999), Social Theory of International Politics, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, A. (2000), ‘On the via media: a response to the critics’, Review of International Studies 26: 165–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wight, C. (1996), ‘Incommensurability and cross-paradigm communication in international relations theory: “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” ’, Millennium 2(1): 291–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wight, C. (2002), ‘Philosophy of social science and international relations’, in W. Carlsnaes, T. Risse and B. A. Simmons (eds), Handbook of International Relations, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Wight, C. (2006), Agents, Structures and International Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wight, C. (2007), ‘A manifesto for Scientific Realism in IR: assuming the can opener won’t work’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 35(2): 379–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanow, D.Schwartz-Shea, P. (eds) (2006), Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn, Armonk, NY, USA: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar