Transcript AAA2) IR THEORY SIMPLE START

Monday, April 19, 2010
Concepts and Functions of
„Theory“: can there be theory-free
knowledge ?
• Set Reading:
• R.Meyers: The role of theory in the study of international
politics – PDF file supplied on my website
• R.Meyers: Contemporary developments in international
relations theory – PDF file supplied on my website
• Highly recommended: Milja Kurki/Colin Wight: International
Relations and Social Science, Ch. 1 in Dunne/Kurki/Smith
This file can be downloaded from
my website
http://reinhardmeyers.uni-muenster.de
Lost in the maze ??? Send email to
[email protected]
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THEORY – A SIMPLE START
• DOES THEORY MATTER?
• WHAT ARE ITS PHILOSOPHICAL &
HISTORICAL ROOTS?
• PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
• ALL IR TEXTBOOKS HAVE THEORY
CHAPTERS
WHY THEORY?
• IDEAS MATTER
• THEORIES INFLUENCE POLICIES AND
POLITICS
• THEORY HELPS US DEAL WITH COMPLEXITY
• IR THEORIES ARE GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT
WORLD AFFAIRS
• THEORIES ARE A NECESSARY MEANS OF
BRINGING ORDER TO THE SUBJECT MATTER
OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
WHAT THEORIES DO
•
•
•
•
•
DESCRIBE
EXPLAIN
PREDICT
PRESCRIBE
CONSTITUTE
EXPLANATORY THEORY
NORMATIVE THEORY
Reality and/or our lenses
through which we see it =
CONSTITUTIVE THEORY
THEORIES ARE NOT LAWS
• THEY REFLECT HISTORICAL
CIRCUMSTANCES
• THEY REFLECT THE PERSONAL
VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES OF THOSE
WHO WRITE THEM
• THEY ARE CONTINUALLY BEING
REVISED IN LIGHT OF CHANGING
CIRCUMSTANCES
BE CRITICAL
• FOR MOST COMPLEX PROBLEMS
THERE ARE EASY SOLUTIONS THAT
ARE OFTEN WRONG
• COMMON SENSE CAN BE NON SENSE
• STATES, LIKE PEOPLE, ACT FOR
MANY REASONS THAT SOMETIMES
CONTRADICT EACH OTHER
• DIFFICULT CHOICES OFTEN MAKE
BAD POLICIES
HOW THEORIES DEVELOP
• EXPLANATORY THEORIES BEGIN
WITH ASSUMPTIONS
• THEORIES OFFER HYPOTHESES
• THEORIES HAVE INDEPENDENT AND
DEPENDENT VARIABLES
• PRACTICAL EXAMPLES ?
HYPOTHESIS ?
• IF WE CONTINUE TO BURN RISING
AMOUNTS OF PETROL THEN THE WORLD’S
TEMPERATURE WILL RISE
– INDEPENDENT VARIABLE - BURNING FUEL
– DEPENDENT VARIABLE - GLOBAL CLIMATE
• SCIENTISTS TEST THEIR THEORIES
EMPIRICALLY – MEASURING INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
• SHOW A CAUSE AND EFFECT
RELATIONSHIP TO GLOBAL WARMING
CONCEPTS TO KNOW
• PREMISSES
• HYPOTHESES
• INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT
VARIABLES
• VALIDITY CRITERIA (Refutation vs.
Corroboration)
• ACTORS
• LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
Three Images or Levels of
Analysis of International
Relations
Three Levels of Analysis
International
Domestic
International Level (“third
image”)
Qualities of the International
System
Domestic Level (“second
image”)
Qualities of the Political and
Economic System
Individual
Individual Level (“first image”)
Qualities of Individual Leadership
Three Images
Kenneth Waltz. 1954. Man, the State, and War.
What are the causes of war?
Third Image: The International System
Second Image: The State
First Image: Human nature
1st Image: Human Nature
Optimists
• People are basically good
• Reform, education
• Crime and war are deviant
behaviors
• Progress is possible,
perhaps inevitable
Pessimists
• Human nature is flawed
• Passion and egoism are
fundamental
• Crime and war are normal
• Utopian ideals are not
achievable
But...
But...
Does knowledge lead to peace?
Incomplete explanation
Does knowledge imply same preferences?
1st Image
• Original Sin: Augustine (354-430)
– Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). Moral Man and
Immoral Society (1932)
• Thucydides (460-400 B.C.)
– Fear, Power, Honour
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
– Subconscious, repression
• Robert Jervis (1976). Perception and
Misperception
2nd Image: The State
Institutions
Despotic states
Internal strife
The State
Liberalism
 Reason and progress make the eventual elimination of war possible
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
On Perpetual Peace
• Historical evolution
•Technology leads to more brutal wars
•States will be compelled to become peaceful
• Republics will be inclined towards peace
• Commerce creates incentives to pursue peace
• Voluntary association in legal federation of
peaceful states
The State
Marxism-Leninism
• The mode of production
determines social relations
• Government represents
dominant class interests
• Under capitalism
– Expanding production leads
to diminishing returns
– Search for profits leads to
demand for new markets
and investment
opportunities
Conflict among
capitalist states
Harmony among
socialist states
3rd Image: International anarchy
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Leviathan (1651)
• Human beings are animals that
seek pleasure and survival
• In the state of nature, others are
threats, so all are at war
• Life is “nasty, brutish and short”
• To transcend anarchy, we
surrender our natural rights to
an absolute sovereign in a
social contract
International
anarchy
State of
Nature
State of
War
Thus, what is a Theory ? More Explanations…
• Theory is "the net which we throw out in order to
catch the world – to rationalize, explain, and
dominate it."
Karl Popper. Logik der Forschung, 1935: p.26
(The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London: Routledge Classics
2002, 2003, 2004)
• A good theory should fulfil the following functions:
 describe, explain and predict (Burchill) observable events – positive
idea of theorizing
 verify and/or more strictly falsify (Popper) statements about the
relationships between observable events - by confronting
accumulated knowledge with reality
• “No matter how many instances of white swans we may have
observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are
white”. Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, op. cit.
 be internally consistent and coherent
 be parsimonious and elegant
But remember the basic difference…
• Explanatory theories are involved in testing hypotheses, in proposing causal explanations, in identifying main trends and patterns in international relations
• They presuppose a reality „ out there“ against which
they can be tested ….
AND THIS IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM !!
• The issue is whether what is „out there“ is always
theory-dependent, conditioned by the language and
the culture of the observer and general beliefs about
IR tied to a particular place & time – my claim is that
there is no view from nowhere !
Consequence: constitutive theory
• We come to the study of international relations with a specific
language, cultural beliefs and preconceptions, and particular
life-experiences which affect our understanding of the subject.
• Our world views are, inter alia, shaped by language, culture,
religion, ethnicity, class, gender, political interests, and socioeconomic and societal status.
• We can interpret the world only within the context of particular
linguistic, cultural, political, and last but not least scientific
frameworks – they act as the lenses through which we perceive
our universe.
Thus it follows:
The study of theory/theories should enable us to
examine all these lenses in order to discover how
they construct their world views and in which way
they shape, simplify, order – and also distort „reality“.
Time for a little break …