Midterm Exam

Question 1

Popper salient features

Answer 1

• scientists are problem solvers
• it is science if it can be falsified
• knowledge by accumulation
• can never say a hypothesis is true~can only gain or lose confidence in a hypothesis
• positivism

Question 2

positivism (Popper)

Answer 2

• we can use logic and senses to increase knowledge

- findings must be able to be replicated

Question 3

Theory survival (Popper)

Answer 3

if a theory survives for a long time w/o being falsified, then it means it is the best available until it is falsified

Question 4

Kuhn salient features

Answer 4

• must at look at history
• paradigms
• revolutionary science
• new science incommensurable

Question 5

Paradigms (Kuhn)

Answer 5

• scientists are within a culture
• questions, methods at a given time
• work within boundaries
• what is acceptable science and what is not

Question 6

revolutionary science (Kuhn)

Answer 6

-creates a crisis in normal science to become the new way of thinking the “new” normal science

Question 7

incommensurability (Kuhn)

Answer 7

• each paradigm is the new normal science
• can’t compare with the old normal science
• not related at all
• scientific knowledge does not build on itself
• can’t understand one from within another

Question 8

checklist for a good theory

Answer 8

• parsimony
• causations
• commensurability
• objectivity
• prediction
• eliminate rival hypotheses
• grandmother test

Question 9

parsimony

Answer 9

• simplicity
• fewer variables than hugely complex explanations
• explanatory power

Question 10

causations

Answer 10

• must be able to be diagramed

- IV and DV

Question 11

commensurability

Answer 11

-clear definitions and measures (explicitly stated)

Question 12

objectivity

Answer 12

• no subjectivity
• use methods that eliminate the possibility of biases
• avoid case selection bias

Question 13

prediction

Answer 13

-better theories allow to predict events

Question 14

eliminate rival hypotheses

Answer 14

-show how rivals can’t explain the thing that I’m explaining

Question 15

grandmother test

Answer 15

• make it interesting w/not too obvious answers

- applicable to the big picture and applicable to broader groups

Question 16

Acharya and Buzan

Answer 16

-try to answer the question of why there is no non-Western IRT

Question 17

what are the reasons that Acharya and Buzan use to answer

Answer 17

• West is right
• Western hegemony
• nonwestern IRT is hidden
• local conditions (divert ppl from writing IRT)
• West has a head start, rest catching up

Question 18

Thucydides

Answer 18

• discussed the negotiations between Athens and Sparta in the Peloponnesian War
• realists always look at the distribution/type of power
• the stronger one is the one that will prevail (if don’t get this then will be destroyed)

Question 19

Morgenthau

Answer 19

• classical realist

- 6 principles of realism

Question 20

6 principles of realism

Answer 20

• objective laws that govern politics
• interest in terms of power
• universally valid
• moral significance
• dont confuse own nations morality with laws of politics
• politics are separate of other fields

Question 21

objective laws that govern politics

Answer 21

-human nature governs at the roots

Question 22

interest is in terms of power

Answer 22

-whatever a state is doing is in the relation to its power

Question 23

universally valid

Answer 23

-power is everywhere but we think of it in different ways

Question 24

moral significance

Answer 24

-states must care about moral consequences (prudence/national survival)

Question 25

Emlen

Answer 25

• evolutionary biologist
• prudence-relative power not absolute power
• power as a signal

Question 26

Waltz

Answer 26

• neorealist
• have to forget hierarchical rules of domestic politics
• states’ capabilities matter not their functions or roles
• anarchy is the lack of an orderer

Question 27

Waltz on human nature

Question 28

structure (according to Waltz)=

Answer 28

-distribution of capabilities

Question 29

Jervis

Answer 29

• neorealist
• anarchy makes it hard for cooperation b/c insecure and concerned about survival
• like Popper–> problem solving uuu

Question 30

security dilemma (Jervis)

Answer 30

• both are suspicious of each other so both build arms and end up equals once again
• anarchy compels the arms race

Question 31

Jervis’ DV

Answer 31

-cooperation under security dilemma

Question 32

Jervis’ IV

Answer 32

-offensive/defensive posture
type of weapons system
-technology and geography gives offensive or defensive advantage

Question 33

Cox main point

Answer 33

-all theory serves some purpose and reflects power; in subjective way

Question 34

Theory for Weber

Answer 34

-incorporates unconscious ideologies==> myths

Question 35

Myths (Weber)

Answer 35

-made to sound true b/c rely on assumptions that no one wants to question

Question 36

myth function (Weber)

Answer 36

-the role that a myth plays in making a theory seem true (largely cultural)

Question 37

Weber on realism

Answer 37

-myth: anarchy=permissive cause of war
-fear is the catalyst to anarchy
story of anarchy ends in war
-realism is an incomplete theory…what about fear?
-theorists need to come up w/theories on fear