Author: Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104009158X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
The politicizing of facts and factual claims has led some to abandon all talk of a meaningful distinction between a fact and a strongly held political commitment. This book argues that what we need, instead, are better accounts of facts and their relationship to explanation—ones that take seriously the dependence of facts on communities of practice and on consensus procedures of measurement, but do not abandon the epistemic distinctiveness of facts. Bringing clarity and order to the discussion by disclosing both key commonalities and significant differences between the ways we talk about facts and explanations, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson argues that although intrinsically more contestable than facts, social-scientific explanations can nonetheless be related to them in ways that allow researchers to evaluate explanations based on whether and to what extent they accord with the relevant facts in each situation. Ardently defending a pragmatist account of knowledge that has no patience with either “alternative facts” or “anything goes” relativism, the author develops a set of concepts that enables tricky philosophical problems to be dissolved. After examining facts, causal explanations, and interpretive explanations, the book culminates in an account of the priority of interpretation in the evaluation of any explanation—and any seemingly factual claim. Defining the terms of the debate and grounding better conversations about the issues, this book will appeal to all scholars interested in the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, international studies, international relations, security studies, and anyone teaching or studying research methods.
Facts and Explanations in International Studies...and beyond
Author: Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104009158X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
The politicizing of facts and factual claims has led some to abandon all talk of a meaningful distinction between a fact and a strongly held political commitment. This book argues that what we need, instead, are better accounts of facts and their relationship to explanation—ones that take seriously the dependence of facts on communities of practice and on consensus procedures of measurement, but do not abandon the epistemic distinctiveness of facts. Bringing clarity and order to the discussion by disclosing both key commonalities and significant differences between the ways we talk about facts and explanations, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson argues that although intrinsically more contestable than facts, social-scientific explanations can nonetheless be related to them in ways that allow researchers to evaluate explanations based on whether and to what extent they accord with the relevant facts in each situation. Ardently defending a pragmatist account of knowledge that has no patience with either “alternative facts” or “anything goes” relativism, the author develops a set of concepts that enables tricky philosophical problems to be dissolved. After examining facts, causal explanations, and interpretive explanations, the book culminates in an account of the priority of interpretation in the evaluation of any explanation—and any seemingly factual claim. Defining the terms of the debate and grounding better conversations about the issues, this book will appeal to all scholars interested in the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, international studies, international relations, security studies, and anyone teaching or studying research methods.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104009158X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
The politicizing of facts and factual claims has led some to abandon all talk of a meaningful distinction between a fact and a strongly held political commitment. This book argues that what we need, instead, are better accounts of facts and their relationship to explanation—ones that take seriously the dependence of facts on communities of practice and on consensus procedures of measurement, but do not abandon the epistemic distinctiveness of facts. Bringing clarity and order to the discussion by disclosing both key commonalities and significant differences between the ways we talk about facts and explanations, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson argues that although intrinsically more contestable than facts, social-scientific explanations can nonetheless be related to them in ways that allow researchers to evaluate explanations based on whether and to what extent they accord with the relevant facts in each situation. Ardently defending a pragmatist account of knowledge that has no patience with either “alternative facts” or “anything goes” relativism, the author develops a set of concepts that enables tricky philosophical problems to be dissolved. After examining facts, causal explanations, and interpretive explanations, the book culminates in an account of the priority of interpretation in the evaluation of any explanation—and any seemingly factual claim. Defining the terms of the debate and grounding better conversations about the issues, this book will appeal to all scholars interested in the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, international studies, international relations, security studies, and anyone teaching or studying research methods.
Facts and Explanations in International Studies
Author: PATRICK THADDEUS. JACKSON
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032595320
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The politicizing of facts and factual claims has led some to abandon all talk of a meaningful distinction between a fact and a strongly held political commitment. This book argues that what we need, instead, are better accounts of facts and their relationship to explanation--ones that take seriously the dependence of facts on communities of practice and on consensus procedures of measurement, but do not abandon the epistemic distinctiveness of facts. Bringing clarity and order to the discussion by disclosing both key commonalities and significant differences between the ways we talk about facts and explanations, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson argues that although intrinsically more contestable than facts, social-scientific explanations can nonetheless be related to them in ways that allow researchers to evaluate explanations based on whether and to what extent they accord with the relevant facts in each situation. Ardently defending a pragmatist account of knowledge that has no patience with either 'alternative facts' or 'anything goes' relativism, the author moves logically from a problematique to an argument, along the way challenging shibboleths and introducing concepts in a logical manner. After examining facts, causal explanations, and interpretive explanations, the book culminates in an account of the priority of interpretation in the evaluation of any explanation--and any seemingly factual claim. Defining the terms of the debate and grounding better conversations about the issues, this book will appeal to all scholars interested in the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, international studies, international relations, security studies, and anyone teaching or studying research methods.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032595320
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The politicizing of facts and factual claims has led some to abandon all talk of a meaningful distinction between a fact and a strongly held political commitment. This book argues that what we need, instead, are better accounts of facts and their relationship to explanation--ones that take seriously the dependence of facts on communities of practice and on consensus procedures of measurement, but do not abandon the epistemic distinctiveness of facts. Bringing clarity and order to the discussion by disclosing both key commonalities and significant differences between the ways we talk about facts and explanations, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson argues that although intrinsically more contestable than facts, social-scientific explanations can nonetheless be related to them in ways that allow researchers to evaluate explanations based on whether and to what extent they accord with the relevant facts in each situation. Ardently defending a pragmatist account of knowledge that has no patience with either 'alternative facts' or 'anything goes' relativism, the author moves logically from a problematique to an argument, along the way challenging shibboleths and introducing concepts in a logical manner. After examining facts, causal explanations, and interpretive explanations, the book culminates in an account of the priority of interpretation in the evaluation of any explanation--and any seemingly factual claim. Defining the terms of the debate and grounding better conversations about the issues, this book will appeal to all scholars interested in the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, international studies, international relations, security studies, and anyone teaching or studying research methods.
The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations
Author: Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136912029
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 665
Book Description
This volume ws the winner of The International Studies Association Theory Section Book Award 2013, presented by the International Studies Association and The Yale H. Ferguson Award 2012, presented by International Studies Association-Northeast. There are many different scientifically valid ways to produce knowledge. The field of International Relations should pay closer attention to these methodological differences, and to their implications for concrete research on world politics. The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations provides an introduction to the philosophy of science issues and their implications for the study of global politics. The author draws attention to the problems caused by the misleading notion of a single unified scientific method, and proposes a framework that clarifies the variety of ways that IR scholars establish the authority and validity of their empirical claims. Jackson connects philosophical considerations with concrete issues of research design within neopositivist, critical realist, analyticist, and reflexive approaches to the study of world politics. Envisioning a pluralist science for a global IR field, this volume organizes the significant differences between methodological stances so as to promote internal consistency, public discussion, and worldly insight as the hallmarks of any scientific study of world politics. This important volume will be essential reading for all students and scholars of International Relations, Political Science and Philosophy of Science.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136912029
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 665
Book Description
This volume ws the winner of The International Studies Association Theory Section Book Award 2013, presented by the International Studies Association and The Yale H. Ferguson Award 2012, presented by International Studies Association-Northeast. There are many different scientifically valid ways to produce knowledge. The field of International Relations should pay closer attention to these methodological differences, and to their implications for concrete research on world politics. The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations provides an introduction to the philosophy of science issues and their implications for the study of global politics. The author draws attention to the problems caused by the misleading notion of a single unified scientific method, and proposes a framework that clarifies the variety of ways that IR scholars establish the authority and validity of their empirical claims. Jackson connects philosophical considerations with concrete issues of research design within neopositivist, critical realist, analyticist, and reflexive approaches to the study of world politics. Envisioning a pluralist science for a global IR field, this volume organizes the significant differences between methodological stances so as to promote internal consistency, public discussion, and worldly insight as the hallmarks of any scientific study of world politics. This important volume will be essential reading for all students and scholars of International Relations, Political Science and Philosophy of Science.
Beyond Power Transitions
Author: David C. Kang
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231555970
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 137
Book Description
Questions about the likelihood of conflict between the United States and China have dominated international policy discussion for years. But the leading theory of power transitions between a declining hegemon and a rising rival is based exclusively on European examples, such as the Peloponnesian War, as chronicled by Thucydides, as well as the rise of Germany under Bismarck and the Anglo-German rivalry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What lessons does East Asian history offer, for both the power transitions debate and the future of U.S.-China relations? Examining the rise and fall of East Asian powers over 1,500 years, Beyond Power Transitions offers a new perspective on the forces that shape war and peace. Xinru Ma and David C. Kang argue that focusing on the East Asian experience underscores domestic risks and constraints on great powers, not relative rise and decline in international competition. They find that almost every regime transition before the twentieth century was instigated by internal challenges and even the exceptions deviated markedly from the predictions of power transition theory. Instead, East Asia was stable for a remarkably long time despite massive power differences because of common understandings about countries’ relative status. Provocative and incisive, this book challenges prevailing assumptions about the universality of power transition theory and shows why East Asian history has profound implications for international affairs today.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231555970
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 137
Book Description
Questions about the likelihood of conflict between the United States and China have dominated international policy discussion for years. But the leading theory of power transitions between a declining hegemon and a rising rival is based exclusively on European examples, such as the Peloponnesian War, as chronicled by Thucydides, as well as the rise of Germany under Bismarck and the Anglo-German rivalry of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What lessons does East Asian history offer, for both the power transitions debate and the future of U.S.-China relations? Examining the rise and fall of East Asian powers over 1,500 years, Beyond Power Transitions offers a new perspective on the forces that shape war and peace. Xinru Ma and David C. Kang argue that focusing on the East Asian experience underscores domestic risks and constraints on great powers, not relative rise and decline in international competition. They find that almost every regime transition before the twentieth century was instigated by internal challenges and even the exceptions deviated markedly from the predictions of power transition theory. Instead, East Asia was stable for a remarkably long time despite massive power differences because of common understandings about countries’ relative status. Provocative and incisive, this book challenges prevailing assumptions about the universality of power transition theory and shows why East Asian history has profound implications for international affairs today.
Beyond the Area Studies Wars
Author: Neil L. Waters
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584650744
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Experts in anthropology, geography, economics, political science, history, sociology, and language assess the present status of the field of international studies.
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584650744
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Experts in anthropology, geography, economics, political science, history, sociology, and language assess the present status of the field of international studies.
Beyond Positivism
Author: Claire Turenne Sjolander
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781555874834
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218
Book Description
This work adopts the premise that the metatheoretical debates about positivists and post-positivists have reached an impasse; it suggests that an approach driven by theoretical reflexivity offers a basis on which alternative understandings of international relations can be developed.
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781555874834
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218
Book Description
This work adopts the premise that the metatheoretical debates about positivists and post-positivists have reached an impasse; it suggests that an approach driven by theoretical reflexivity offers a basis on which alternative understandings of international relations can be developed.
Emotions in International Politics
Author: Yohan Ariffin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107113857
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
This book investigates collective emotions in international politics, with examples from 9/11 and World War II to the Rwandan genocide.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107113857
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
This book investigates collective emotions in international politics, with examples from 9/11 and World War II to the Rwandan genocide.
Beyond Global Governance
Author: James A. Yunker
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761863613
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
In these ground-breaking essays, James A. Yunker issues a powerful challenge to conventional thinking on world government. Based on an innovative plan for a limited world government tentatively designated the “Federal Union of Democratic Nations,” this book envisions a legitimate world government a quantum leap beyond the United Nations of today. The Federal Union proposed would operate under some key restraints, such as a dual voting system in the world legislature, and two key reserved rights of the member nations: to withdraw from the Federal Union at their own unilateral discretion, and to maintain independent control over whatever military forces they feel are necessary to their national security. Yunker demonstrates how these restraints would minimize the possibility that the world government would result in such adverse outcomes as global tyranny, bureaucratic overload, or cultural homogenization.
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761863613
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
In these ground-breaking essays, James A. Yunker issues a powerful challenge to conventional thinking on world government. Based on an innovative plan for a limited world government tentatively designated the “Federal Union of Democratic Nations,” this book envisions a legitimate world government a quantum leap beyond the United Nations of today. The Federal Union proposed would operate under some key restraints, such as a dual voting system in the world legislature, and two key reserved rights of the member nations: to withdraw from the Federal Union at their own unilateral discretion, and to maintain independent control over whatever military forces they feel are necessary to their national security. Yunker demonstrates how these restraints would minimize the possibility that the world government would result in such adverse outcomes as global tyranny, bureaucratic overload, or cultural homogenization.
International Relations
Author: Manuela Spindler
Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
ISBN: 3866495501
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
The book is written for active learners – those keen on cutting their own path through the complex and at times hardly comprehensible world of THEORY in International Relations. To aid this process as much as possible, this book employs the didactical and methodical concept of integrating teaching and self-study. The criteria for structured learning about IR theory will be derived from an extensive discussion of the questions and problems of philosophy of science (Part 1). Theory of IR refers to the scientific study of IR and covers all of the following subtopics: the role and status of theory in the academic discipline of IR; the understanding of IR as a science and what a ""scientific"" theory is; the different assumptions upon which theory building in IR is based; the different types of theoretical constructions and models of explanations found at the heart of particular theories; and the different approaches taken on how theory and the practice of international relations are linked to each other. The criteria for the structured learning process will be applied in Part 2 of the book during the presentation of five selected theories of International Relations. The concept is based on ""learning through example"" – that is, the five theories have been chosen because, when applying the criteria developed in Part 1 of the book, each single theory serves as an example for something deeply important to learn about THEORY of IR more generally.
Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
ISBN: 3866495501
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
The book is written for active learners – those keen on cutting their own path through the complex and at times hardly comprehensible world of THEORY in International Relations. To aid this process as much as possible, this book employs the didactical and methodical concept of integrating teaching and self-study. The criteria for structured learning about IR theory will be derived from an extensive discussion of the questions and problems of philosophy of science (Part 1). Theory of IR refers to the scientific study of IR and covers all of the following subtopics: the role and status of theory in the academic discipline of IR; the understanding of IR as a science and what a ""scientific"" theory is; the different assumptions upon which theory building in IR is based; the different types of theoretical constructions and models of explanations found at the heart of particular theories; and the different approaches taken on how theory and the practice of international relations are linked to each other. The criteria for the structured learning process will be applied in Part 2 of the book during the presentation of five selected theories of International Relations. The concept is based on ""learning through example"" – that is, the five theories have been chosen because, when applying the criteria developed in Part 1 of the book, each single theory serves as an example for something deeply important to learn about THEORY of IR more generally.
Going beyond Parochialism and Fragmentation in the Study of International Relations
Author: Yong-Soo Eun
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351665030
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
International Relations (IR), as a discipline, is a western dominated enterprise. This has led to calls to broaden the scope and vision of the discipline by embracing a wider range of histories, experiences, and theoretical perspectives – particularly those outside the Anglo-American core of the West. The ongoing ‘broadening IR projects’ – be they ‘non-Western IR’, ‘post-Western IR’, or ‘Global IR’ – are making contributions in this regard. However, some careful thinking is needed here in that these attempts could also lead to a national or regional ‘inwardness’ that works to reproduce the very parochialism that is being challenged. The main intellectual concerns of this edited volume are problematising Western parochialism in IR; giving theoretical and epistemological substance to pluralism in the field of IR based on both Western and non-Western thoughts and experiences; and working out ways to move the discipline of IR one step closer to a dialogic community. A key issue that cuts across all contributions in the volume is to go beyond both parochialism and fragmentation in international studies. In order to address the manifold and contested implications of pluralism in in the field of IR, the volume draws on the wealth of experience and research of prominent and emerging IR scholars whose contributions make up the work, with a mixture of theoretical analysis and case studies. This book will appeal to scholars and students interested in Global IR and promoting dialogue in a pluralist IR.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351665030
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
International Relations (IR), as a discipline, is a western dominated enterprise. This has led to calls to broaden the scope and vision of the discipline by embracing a wider range of histories, experiences, and theoretical perspectives – particularly those outside the Anglo-American core of the West. The ongoing ‘broadening IR projects’ – be they ‘non-Western IR’, ‘post-Western IR’, or ‘Global IR’ – are making contributions in this regard. However, some careful thinking is needed here in that these attempts could also lead to a national or regional ‘inwardness’ that works to reproduce the very parochialism that is being challenged. The main intellectual concerns of this edited volume are problematising Western parochialism in IR; giving theoretical and epistemological substance to pluralism in the field of IR based on both Western and non-Western thoughts and experiences; and working out ways to move the discipline of IR one step closer to a dialogic community. A key issue that cuts across all contributions in the volume is to go beyond both parochialism and fragmentation in international studies. In order to address the manifold and contested implications of pluralism in in the field of IR, the volume draws on the wealth of experience and research of prominent and emerging IR scholars whose contributions make up the work, with a mixture of theoretical analysis and case studies. This book will appeal to scholars and students interested in Global IR and promoting dialogue in a pluralist IR.