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Summary Notes on Introduction to Political Science - IRO
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Summary readings IPS IRO 2021 – Jim Hiddink Chapter 11 – Ontology and Epistemology
o Basis of orientation of scientist
o All scientists should recognise their own ontological and epistemological position
and be able to defend them
Understand the alternative positions on questions
Be able to explain why they chose certain positions and methods over
others
o Subchapter 1 – Ontology and epistemology introduced
Ontology
Questions the nature of being
o “what are the form and nature of reality and, consequently,
what is there that can be known about it?”
Two subtypes
o Foundationalism ( objectivism / realism )
Posits a real world, independent of our knowledge
of it
o Anti-foundationalism ( constructivism / relativism )
Treats the world as always socially constructed
Epistemology
Questions what we can know about the world
o “how do we know about the world”
Two key questions
o Can an observer identify real or objective relations between
social phenomena?
Subsumes two issues
o Is there “objective”
o Can an observer identify it
Answering the first with no leads to the
double hermeneutic (interpretivism)
o “the world is interpreted by the
actors (1st hermeneutic level), and
their interpretation is interpreted by
the observer (2nd hermeneutic
level).
o If so, how? (frame of reference)
Ontology and epistemology are related
Contested issue
o Colin Hay
, We cannot prove an ontological position, or indeed
the relationship between ontology and
epistemology. Therefore we should adopt a position
that makes sense to us and use it consistently, while
acknowledging that it is contested
“Ontology relates to the nature of the social and
political world, and epistemology to what we can
know about it, so ontology is logically prior in the
sense that the ‘it’ in the second term is, and can
only be, specified by the first.”
o Poststructuralists Deborah Dixon and Jean Paul Jones III
“ontological assumptions put the cart before the
horse, for ontology is itself grounded in
epistemology about how we know ‘what the world
is like’. In other words, the analysis of ontology
invariably shows it to rest upon epistemological
priors that enable claims about the structure of the
real world.”
o Spencer
ontology cannot, and should not, be reduced to
epistemology, because, if it is, everything becomes
thought and discourse and social structures/the
material world have no causal power
not claiming that ideas or discourses do not affect
how the ‘real world’ impacts agents/groups, but
only that these are ideas/discourses about ‘real’,
that is extra-discursive, social phenomena
Subchapter 2 – distinguishing ontological and epistemological positions
o Foundationalism / objectivism / realism
The world is viewed as composed of discreet objects
which possess properties that are independent of
the observer
Posits the existence of objective, absolute and
unconditional truths
Critics – understanding of ontology entails a
probabilistic, rather than absolutist, account of
causality.
Substrands
Epistemological positivists
o Doesn’t recognize that which
realists do
o However, shares the assumption
that causality operates
independently of the observer and
can be established objectively
Epistemological realists
, o Emphasize the role that theory
plays in any interpretation of the
causal power of any structure or
institution in that real world
Real-world effect on actions
is mediated by ideas.
o Anti-foundationalism / constructivism / relativism
Realities are local and specific; they vary between
individuals and between groups.
Reality is constructed rather than discovered
Reality is socially constructed, but while its
individuals reflect on it, their views are shaped by
social, political, and cultural processes
There is a real world out there, but it is irrelevant,
since it has no causal power on social action
independent of people’s understanding of it
Epistemological positions
o Scientific
Empiricist
Allowed the development of standard rules
o Under a given set of conditions,
there would be regular and
predictable outcomes
Focus on identifying the causes of social
behaviour
Emphasis on statistical explanation
Very much influenced by logical positivism
o “to detect the regularities in nature,
propose a generalisation, deduce
what it implies for the next case and
observe whether the prediction
succeeds. If it does, no consequent
action is needed; if it does not, then
either discard the generalisation or
amend it and (test the) fresh
(predictions)”
o Hermeneutic (to interpret in greek) / interpretivist tradition
Anti-foundationalist
Believes the world is socially constructed
Focus on the meaning of behaviour
Emphasis on understanding rather than explaining
Establishing causal relationship between
phenomena that hold across time and space is not
possible
Postivist, interpretivist and critical realist position
o Positivism
Adheres to a foundationalist ontology
, Is concerned to establish causal relationships
between social phenomena
Denies the existence of unobservable structures
Makes the knowledge claims of realism
untestable and thus un-falsifiable
o Critical realism
shares the same broad ontological position as
positivism
Unlike positivism, does not privilege direct
observation
Believes that there are deep structural relationships
between social phenomena which can’t be directly
observed, but which are crucial for any explanation
of behaviour
e.g. might argue that patriarchy as a
structure cannot be directly observed, but
the consequences of it are observable
While social phenomena exist independently of our
interpretation of them, our interpretation and
understanding of them affects outcomes
There is a real objective world, but our
understanding of it is decided by the world that is
socially constructed
o Interpretivism
Criticize the ontological claims of realism
No structures that are independent of social action
No objective basis on which to observe the actions
Thus claims that structures cause social action are
rejected on both ontological and epistemological
grounds
Ways ontological and epistemological decisions matter
o Determine the role of theory in empirical research
o Shape the way the researcher conceives the relationship
between theory and practice
o Affect what the researcher expects to achieve through her
empirical research
Chapter 10 – Normative Political Theory
o Methods in normative political theory
Rawls on reflective equilibrium
A theory of Justice – Rawls 1971
o Provided
A detailed and influential account of the demands of
justice in a liberal democracy society
Methodology for political theorists
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