Exam 1

Question 1

What is the purpose of political science?

Answer 1

The scientific study of politics is about application of the method of science to the study of political phenomena

Question 2

What is empiricism?

Answer 2

Puts forward explanations of phenomena and use observations judge the the tenability of explanations. An empiricist demands that data and observations support whatever point is being made.

Question 3

What is the principle of verification?

Answer 3

Statements can only be provisionally accepted only to the extent that they are derived from observational evidence. Doesn’t mean absolute proof, evidence has to fit the claim you make.

Question 4

What is unfalsifiablity?

Answer 4

A claim that cannot be refuted by any evidence. Examples- astrology, everything can fit

Question 5

Who made the principle of falsifiability?

Answer 5

Carl Popper

Question 6

What is a probabilistic theory?

Answer 6

A theory where particular anomalies do not prove it wrong, but are falsifiable. Ex- South tends to be more conservative, but there are liberals in the South

Question 7

Are all theories equally improbable?

Answer 7

Since all potential observations are infinite, no amount of successful testing will increase the probability that a particular theory is true. But, between two theories, it is rational to prefer one that accounts for all the evidence that a rival theory explains, plus all the evidence it does not.

Question 8

When does confidence in a theory grow?

Answer 8

As it predicts novel facts, facts that could not have been conceived without the theory (bending light, quantum entanglement)

Question 9

What is spurious correlation?

Answer 9

When two variables are related, but one doesn’t cause the other. Predictions are possible even when correlation is spurious.

Question 10

What is the difference between finding correlation and finding causation?

Answer 10

Science wants to uncover causal mechanisms. Facts do not always speak for themselves

Question 11

What is theory?

Answer 11

A body of statements that systematizes knowledge and explains relations between phenomena. Can be generated by induction or deduction.

Question 12

What is induction?

Answer 12

Drawing general conclusions from specific observations and examples.

Question 13

What is deduction?

Answer 13

Drawing conclusions based on on general principles and assumptions

Question 14

What is non-normativity?

Answer 14

Scientific knowledge is value free, addresses what is, what might be in the future, and why, but does not concern itself if something is good or bad.

Question 15

What are normativity?

Answer 15

Statements about what ought to be, which are outside the purview of science. They may rely on science and follow the rules of logic, but they are not science

Question 16

How do we know that theories haven’t been contaminated by scientists with human flaws?

Answer 16

The credibility of the scientific method is ensured by data access (data made public), production transparency, analytic transparency, peer review, incentivized institutional skepticism, freedom of academic inquiry, tenure, and a celebration of novelty

Question 17

What is transmissibility?

Answer 17

Anybody who follows the same procedures should get the same results

Question 18

What is cumulativity?

Answer 18

Substantive findings and research methods should build upon prior research and findings

Question 19

What is generality?

Answer 19

Knowledge that explains classes of events is more valuable than knowledge that explains a specific one

Question 20

Why do constructivists not like generality?

Answer 20

They argue it is a totalizing imperial approach

Question 21

What is parsimony?

Answer 21

The same principle as Occum’s Razor, the simplest explanation tends to be true.

Question 22

What is rationality?

Answer 22

The ability to use knowledge to attain goals, knowledge is justified true belief, and beliefs must be held in pursuit of a goal

Question 23

What are the axioms of rational choice?

Answer 23

Completeness, transitivity (if a>b, and b>c, then a>c)

Question 24

What is the Bayes Rule?

Answer 24

You have to update probability and beliefs due to new evidence

Question 25

How do we obtain true knowledge?

Answer 25

We learn by observation, or derive consequences from known, established theories. We subject this to empirical tests.

Question 26

What are the reasons for using reason?

Answer 26

When you demand justification for using reason, you have already conceded the game to reason. Using reason works. Has a better chance of getting us knowledge.

Question 27

What are the alternatives to reason?

Answer 27

Revelation, subjective belief, lived experience (why should I care about this?), coercion (coercion triggers counter coercion), and traditions (which traditions should be trusted and respected?)

Question 28

How are subjectivism and relativism logical dead ends?

Answer 28

When you say everything is subjective or relative, is that claim itself subjective/relative? Additionally, are the Holocaust and slavery just another narrative or are they facts of subjective reality?

Question 29

Why do some say irrationality is necessary?

Answer 29

Love and art aren’t rational (they are irrelevant to rationality), was Hume right that rationality is the slave of passions (meaning that reason is a means to an end).

Question 30

Is it good not to know sometimes?

Answer 30

Avoiding knowledge that might be a source of anguish but that one can’t do anything about, keeping juries unbiased, in peer review.

Question 31

Can things be rational but taboo?

Answer 31

Market for kidneys, prostitution, taboo trade-offs, taboo hypotheticals

Question 32

What is a straw man argument?

Answer 32

An effigy of an opponent that is easier to knock down than the real thing. Ex- Chomsky says children are born talking.

Question 33

What is special pleading?

Answer 33

Insisting on special requirements and conditions, or exceptions for ones claim. Ex- ESP fails in experiments because of the negative vibes from skeptics

Question 34

What is moving the goalposts?

Answer 34

Starting out with some claim, then instead of giving up when confronted with good counterarguments, repackaging it. Ex- Defunding the police, but its only about transferring a portion of their budget to emergency responders.

Question 35

What is “no true Scotsman”?

Answer 35

A version of moving the goalposts where the person where a group of people is generalized into a statement, and any exceptions are said not to be part of the group. Ex- No true Christian kills

Question 36

What is begging the question?

Answer 36

Making a claim that is based on an assumption that is highly contestable or that simply cannot be made. Ex- When did you stop beating your wife?

Question 37

What is the burden of proof fallacy?

Answer 37

Usually, the burden of proof is on the person who makes a claim, demanding proof of a negative or counterfactual is often not a legitimate demand. Ex- Can you prove there is no God?

Question 38

What is tu quo quo or whataboutism?

Answer 38

Confronting a claim not with a counterargument, but bringing up a new point in the hopes that it is made better. Ex- The USSR is a repressive state. What about the mistreatment of black Americans in the US?

Question 39

What is argument from authority?

Answer 39

Using an authority to prove a point instead of a legitimate counterargument. Ex- 90% of Nobel laureates believe climate change is happening

Question 40

What is the bandwagon effect?

Answer 40

So many people believe x, so there must be some truth to it.

Question 41

What is ad hominem?

Answer 41

Attacking the identity of the author of the argument instead of making a counterpoint. Ex- The argument cannot be taken seriously coming from a straight, white male. However, there is skepticism if an argument comes from the biases. There is added credibility if the argument is contrary to the author’s biases. But these are not evaluations of the argument.

Question 42

What is genetic fallacy?

Answer 42

A version of ad hominem, relying on sources. Ex- That argument cannot be treated seriously, because it relies on CIA data.

Question 43

What is guilt by association?

Answer 43

A version of ad hominem where counterarguments are made by the group that did x. Ex- Carcinogenic properties in tobacco were initially argued by Nazi scientists

Question 44

What is appeal to emotion/affective fallacy?

Answer 44

Using emotion instead of factual arguments to try to persuade an audience. Ex- How can you look at a child being killed by a bomb and say violence has been declining?

Question 45

How has there been a change in attitude towards certain fallacies?

Answer 45

Fallacies used to be blunders. But now, they have become increasingly common in journalism and academia. Sometimes, context is relevant.

Question 46

What is God of the Gaps?

Answer 46

When every time there is something that can’t be explained by your argument, you are entirely wrong. Ex- origins of organic life

Question 47

How do social scientists respond to the argument that the hope that achieving the same kind of consensus as physics and biology, of creating the same paradigms as in physics and biology, have not been realized (Rabinow and Sullivan)?

Answer 47

Even in the physical sciences, the stability of paradigms is a relatively new one (and what does that mean exactly?)

Question 48

How do social scientists respond to the argument that the object in social sciences knows itself and it has reflexivity (Rabinow and Sullivan)?

Answer 48

What exactly does this difference imply and why does this make social science impossible?

Question 49

How do social scientists respond to the idea that practical understanding of context cannot be reduced to a system of categories defined only in terms of their relations to each other (Rabinow and Sullivan)?

Answer 49

Not entirely sure what this means, but it’s probably about interactions being fundamentally context driven and not subject to universal laws. Therefore, we have to engage in interpretation. But how is interpretation possible without reference to universal laws or some universal regularities, which have to be at the core of any interpretation. And aren’t all contexts just cultural and sociological variations of more fundamental variables.

Question 50

What are the alternatives proposed by the opponents of science (Rabinow and Sullivan)?

Answer 50

There are concrete cultural meanings, but cultures can differ, but have similar bases and can be contextualized. Human existence can’t boiled down to general theory and cultural contexts are separate enough that they can’t be boiled down to theory. But also, empathy shows there is shared meaning and we can understand each other, which contradicts what we just said. We interpret our own values and others who study them are interpreting them. There are no outside cultural values, no correct values, but there are basic principles which are common across cultures. But we cannot explain this variation from the inside, interpret interpretations. You cannot look at practices and try to interpret them through the lens of the individual.

Question 51

What is the general argument of those opposed to the scientific method in social sciences?

Answer 51

Cultural meaning relies on context, so baselines of the observers and observed are culturally based, but as a species we have some cultural realities. While they may think that social sciences is saying which cultures are right, that isn’t true, and there is no absolute perspective and no final recounting.

Question 52

What is the difference between structuralism and reductionism?

Answer 52

While they both rely on the scientific method, reductionists look at the individual without context, while structuralists believe individuals are shaped by structural conditions in which they exist.

Question 53

How does the example of Geertz study of Balinese cockfighting show us that we can understand different cultural meanings?

Answer 53

Cockfighting is wrong to us in our cultural context, but in Bali, there are many different rules, giving cockfighting a different cultural meaning in Bali, which Geertz understood while being from an outside culture

Question 54

What is the critique of scientism by the Frankfurt school?

Answer 54

As technology develops, different cultures become more connected, meaning that tech cultures have a homogenizing effect, which can devastate local cultures. But this is a political statement confused with the applicability of the scientific method.

Question 55

How do feminists define gender (Tickner)?

Answer 55

Feminist define gender, in a symbolic sense, as a set of variable but socially and culturally constructed characteristics, associating with femininity and masculinity. But where is the evidence that all positive characteristics are associated with men. The feminist reaction also only complains about the fact the masculine characteristics are good and feminine characteristics are bad, and wants to flip flop them.

Question 56

What does Deborah Tannen say about feminists doing IR?

Answer 56

After WWII, most IR scholars became unconcerned with level one (human) analysis, moving towards state and systemic level analysis. Feminist IR scholars, she says, bring the focus back to human levels of analysis. But this is simply untrue, many studies are level one analysis and cognitive science has become very popular.

Question 57

What does Tickner say about the emancipatory goals of feminism in IR?

Answer 57

This approach is positivist, trying to distinguish how things are and how they should be. But, since social constructs reality, you don’t have constraints, it is what we make of it, and people who make claims about reality have an agenda, and say that because it is what they want. But how can you strive for progress without understanding what impedes reality.

Question 58

What does Tickner say about Martin Wight’s argument in “Why is there no international theory”?

Answer 58

The realist/liberal argument that states are self-regarding, but that constrains our ability to imagine a more progressive IR theory, and change to a true community of states.

Question 59

What did Tickner say about early American realists?

Answer 59

They escaped Nazi persecution during WWII, and sought to understand how understanding of realpolitiks is separate from morality and values. Morganthau especially believed that only a more scientific understanding of its cause could the likelihood of war be diminished. Here, Tickner acknowledges that Morganthau’s goal is ending war, which doesn’t go with the idea that realists say want the reality they say.

Question 60

What does Tickner say about many feminists considering themselves post-positivists?

Answer 60

Post-positive feminism is an approach that takes into account cultural and constructed realities. It assumes that every approach, however, is on equal footing with science. But these approaches do not get us to form knowledge. Additionally, if everything is socially constructed, what is it if not a claim about empirical reality?

Question 61

What is Cox’s theory about theory?

Answer 61

There are two types of theory: critical theory and problem-solving theory. Men use problem-solving theory accepts the world as it is, and attempt to change things that way, but feminists see the world as characterized by gender hierarchies which are detrimental to women, they do not believe this. But this is problem solving, the problem is gender hierarchies, and that is a claim of empirical realities. The argument that everything is detached reality, nature, and history is an interesting one.

Question 62

What is Tickner’s explanations of how different traditions explain inequality between men and women?

Answer 62

Psychoanalytic traditions see how women are raised differently from men as the reason for inequality, radicals, Marxists, and socialists look for explanations in the structure of the patriarchy. Feminism is different from other forms of social and political theory because it is centered on an investigation of the forms of power that me exercise over women. But why can’t this be studied through science?

Question 63

What does Tickner say about the idea that women can just be added to theories?

Answer 63

These ideas are incorrect, because it can lead to misunderstandings, especially because in the past, women’s knowledge was discounted, so they don’t want their ideas to just be absorbed. But what is being proposed here? Why can’t they just be subsumed under IR?

Question 64

Why is what Tickner says about favoring male knowledge and disfavoring female knowledge incorrect, as well as that black women especially do not trust science, but prefer lived experience?

Answer 64

Enlightenment ideas are about not favoring the knowledge of any one person, you must use evidence to prove it. We don’t believe relativity because Einstein was a man, it was tested. The principle Tickner believes is the same as authority coming from the Church.

Question 65

What is Evelyn Fox Keller’s argument?

Answer 65

Modern science, rooted in the Enlightenment, beliefs being objective is linked to being masculine. Men were the authorities on knowledge. But aren’t Tickner and co doing the same thing, but in reverse, that women’s activities are superior to men’s. Also, how do I know what is true if I cannot access your truth claims?

Question 66

Who does Plato think should rule?

Answer 66

The enlightened, with a restriction on inquiry for everyone. Leaders could lie for the greater good of everyone else, but if anyone else lies, they should be punished

Question 67

What was Plato’s view of knowledge?

Answer 67

Only some people have access to knowledge, by sitting down in a quiet room and think. Knowledge and politics should be entwined. It is outdated but still slightly persists today.

Question 68

Who has claim to knowledge?

Answer 68

Opinions differ, we draw different conclusions about what we see. But we see differently. Our points of view are different. At the same time, we believe there are objective world independent from perceptions.

Question 69

What are the alternate means to science for deciding who has knowledge?

Answer 69

Every man for himself, relativists, no truth exists, authority, coercion

Question 70

What came before the Enlightenment?

Answer 70

After the fall of the church’s authority, after Reformation and the political pressure to answer the question “who is right” and “who is wrong” when there is disagreement or uncertainty. Montaigne thought attainment of real knowledge was hopeless. Hume thought without the assumption that everything in the past will continue in the future, we can’t claim any knowledge.

Question 71

Why doesn’t radical skepticism work towards knowledge either?

Answer 71

Skepticism refers to the doctrine that we have no reason to believe anything, so we should believe nothing, but this is a belief.

Question 72

What is skepticism in liberal science?

Answer 72

The belief that no conclusion is above scrutiny or change. There is no renunciation of knowledge, like in skepticism, just certainty. No one has the final say and no one has authority.

Question 73

What is the liberal game of science?

Answer 73

Each school of thought places their idea before a group. Friends/enemies of the idea test and criticize, poke and prod, check and crosscheck. Everyone is entitled to modify or suggest a new idea. The idea that survives this process is the winner- only as long as it continues to survive.

Question 74

Should proponents of intelligent design and indigenous medicine be given the same respect and opportunity as other ideas in liberal science?

Answer 74

No, to believe incorrectly is not a crime, but it is not knowledge, it becomes knowledge if it is accepted by critical consensus.

Question 75

What are the arguments for/against restricting knowledge?

Answer 75

Should we avoid knowledge that causes psychological pain? Can we produce knowledge without risking pain? Who decides what is painful or hurtful? Is there a right not to be offended? Is criticism or disagreement equivalent to violence? How do we distinguish between criticism and bigotry? Who decides and when do we stop?

Question 76

What is postmodernism?

Answer 76

While postmodernism isn’t really a body of idea, and is more a set of attitudes, it is a negation mostly of themes that have reigned in liberal intellectual life of the West since Enlightenment.

Question 77

What exactly does postmodernism reject?

Answer 77

The possibility of enduring, universal knowledge in any area (all knowledge is local, product of social class, circumscribed by interests and prejudices of that particular group), there is no knowledge, there are merely stories designed to satisfy the human need to make sense of the world, in making stories, they track in unacknowledged ways the interests, prejudices, and conceits of their devisers. All knowledge projects are politics, by other means

Question 78

What is deconstructionism?

Answer 78

Truly meaningful utterance is impossible, language is ultimately impotent, as are the manual operations conditioned by linguistic habit. The verbal means by which we seek to represent the world are incapable of doing any such thing. So, everything wrong is society is no longer explained by the mode of production (marxism), but the mode of discourse

Question 79

What are some hallmarks of deconstructionism?

Answer 79

Impenetrable jargon (due to Derrida), reassociating an argument with different words, sense is restricted (they believe that it is constricting), narratives help those in power

Question 80

How do postmodernists distinguish from good and bad stories, if not with the scientific method?

Answer 80

Who’s telling them. Postmodernists make truth claims all the time (ex: women have been historically oppressed by men), their truth claims should not be placed under the same scrutiny, due to past oppression and identity.

Question 81

Why did the first wave of postmodernism fall out of fashion?

Answer 81

It collapsed due to endless construction, if it’s all deconstruction, why should I take you seriously?

Question 82

What has the second generation of postmodernism done to revive the school?

Answer 82

They have a political goal to address unjust power relations in society and oppression. They wrote accessibly (no more Derrida), and identified injustices, with class as a secondary injustices.

Question 83

What are criticisms of the postmodernists view of oppression?

Answer 83

Who is oppressed? Is Condoleeza Rice more oppressed than a white, male coal miner’s son? Who speaks on behalf of the oppressed? What does this have to do with truth?

Question 84

Why was Tickner wrong when she argued that adding experiences of women to knowledge can enhance objectivity?

Answer 84

Do we reject objectivity or strive for better objectivity? Though historically, some voices have been left out, that’s not objectivity. Basically, she wants her cake and to eat it too.

Question 85

What are some ways postmodernists contradict themselves?

Answer 85

Gender is a social construct, but there are also special gifts that women have derived from their inherent nature. Race is a social construct, but one can’t be transracial.

Question 86

Why is postmodernism attractive?

Answer 86

It says things that are popular among the left, but in scorning the Enlightenment, postmodernists are cutting ties with their roots.

Question 87

What are some left wing principles?

Answer 87

Government spending/economic principles, social policy, progressive taxes, egalitarian world view, focus on people vs. corporations, govt. has to provide.

Question 88

What are some marxist principles?

Answer 88

Capitalism is a system of exploitation, labor claims only part of their added value, profit is uncompensated labor, bourgeoise vs proletariat, abolish private property and private means to production

Question 89

What are some right wing principles?

Answer 89

Traditional social values, unregulated markets, low taxes, small government

Question 90

What are some woke principles?

Answer 90

Political correctness, protect from harm, offensive language = violence, oppressed vs oppressor groups, rejects universalism/individualism

Question 91

When did Constructivism originate?

Answer 91

The 1960s, championed by French intellectuals of the time

Question 92

Why did constructivism originate?

Answer 92

Most early constructivists were marxists, but by that time, they were horrified by things that were done in the name of Marx, and disillusioned by the problems of the Soviet Union and China. Nazism also contributed, leading them to be frustrated that modernity could lead to the horrors of the Nazis

Question 93

How was the left wing changing in the 60s?

Answer 93

The left wing had been about the rights of workers and the proletariat, but it became about identity based politics, even as in the last 30-40 years the wealth gap has been expanding

Question 94

What is the 500 missiles tenant of constructivism?

Answer 94

Alexander Went said that the US is more threatened by 5 North Korean missiles than 500 British missiles, which shows the main features of constructivism

Question 95

What are the main features of constructivism?

Answer 95

Social construction of interests, relationship between structures and agendas, multiple logics of anarchy

Question 96

What does it mean that constructivism is an alternative to materialism?

Answer 96

Meanings are socially constructed, meanings and practices are not fixed, they can change, whereas materialism says that objects themselves hold meaning.