Positivism

Positivism ¹ §

• Involved in Fourth Great Debate of the The Four Great Debates in IR ²

What is Positivism? §

Positivist: information derived from sensory experience, as interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain knowledge.

• strictly uses the scientific approach use of data, research, statistics to determine IR (Objective answer). ³
• Rejects claim without empirical evidence to prove the theory. Most follow scientific methods
• follows empiricism
• any knowledge is fallable. New discoveries could disprove past findings.
• Contradicts:: Post-Positivism

What does Positivists base their knowledge claims on? Is it reliable? §

foundationalism a term used to describe theories that believe that our knowledge can have foundations, either in reason and rationality, systematic empirical observation, or independent existence of reality.

• Dominance of rationalist approach on ‘how we knows what we knows’ through foundationalism
  • It makes knowledge claims based on secure grounds
  • Rationalists claim it is more accurate as it uses systematic scientific approach.
  • Humans can gain knowledge by science and objective truths rather than theory and facts.

3 Founding Assumptions of Positivism §

• epistemic realism: there is an external world independent of what the observer does
• universal scientific language: the external world can be described in language without guessing anything and is detached from observers’ biases.
• correspondence theory of truth: observer can determine if anything in true or false statements

‘approach political reality with a kind of rational outline’ and distinguish ‘between what is true objectively and rationally, supported by evidence and illuminated by reason, and what is only a subjective judgement, divorced from the facts as they are and informed by prejudice and wishful thinking’

— Hans Morgenthau

Approach §

• The Objective approach to use scientific data, research, and facts to determine one objective answer

• Subjects: Mathematics, Economics

• Method: Hypothesis, Collection of data for research

• Focus on Explaining using samples

• Theory does not apply to theorist

• supports:: Realism

References §

Footnotes §

1. IRTD - Chapter 12 Post-Structuralism ↩

2. Introduction Thinking Theoretically ↩

3. Chapter 2 Theories of IR ↩