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Summary Notes on Introduction to Political Science - IRO

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Summary in bullet point format that encapsulates all that is to be studied for the course; ask the class of 2023 ;)

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  • 28 april 2022
  • 44
  • 2020/2021
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jimhiddink
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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