SOCIAL SCIENCE THEORY

Question 1

What are positive and post positivist ways to see the world?

Answer 1

Disagreement over ontology, epistemology, and methodology
Two radically different ways to study the world around us

Question 2

What are the differences between Ontology and Epistemology and Methodology

Answer 2

Ontology is concerned with the nature of reality. In the social sciences, it is concerned with questions about what kinds of entities exist in the social world and the nature of their existence (–> remember Hurd re IOs)

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. How do we come to have knowledge of the world?

Methodology is concerned with the methods we use to collect data and analyse evidence

Question 3

VAN EVERA seeks to explain but acknowledges that positivism is not always clear….what does she mean

Answer 3

Models itself on the natural sciences

Accepts that there is no objective ‘external’ truth but seeks to approximate it

Collects qualitative and quantitative data to identify and explain patterns (regularities)

Evaluates theories against agreed standards

Explanation is not the same as realism in IR theory, and is not the same as large-n (statistical) analysis.

Question 4

Why is, according to Hollis and Smith, post positivism better than positivism?

Answer 4

It is simply not true that the mind is, as traditional empiricists used to suppose, a tabula rasa or blank tablet on which experience writes. Observation is an intelligent activity of bringing concepts to bear.
Positivism under attack from ‘within’: Quine’s pragmatism and Kuhn’s work on paradigms
Quine: There is no way of describing experience independently of its interpretation. There are no ‘brute’ facts - no facts prior to interpretation.
Kuhn: incommensurability of IR ‘paradigms’ makes comparability and falsifiability impossible
Correlation vs causation “Perhaps one agrees that expansion of the money supply and inflation do often go together but refuses to accept it as significant unless told why”

Question 5

What are Theories according to (Van Evera, 7)?

Answer 5

“Theories are general statements that describe causes or effects of classes of phenomena” (Van Evera, 7).
Composed of
Causal laws
Causal hypotheses
Explanations
Antecedent conditions

Question 6

What are Laws and Hypothesis according to Van Evera?

Answer 6

Law: “observed regular relationship between two phenomena” (Van Evera, 8)
Deterministic
Probabilistic
Hypothesis: “conjectured regular relationship between two phenomena” (Van Evera, 8)

Question 7

What kind of variables can a theorie have?

Answer 7

Independent variable = variable framing the causal phenomenon of a theory/hypothesis

Dependent variable = variable framing the caused phenomenon of a theory/hypothesis

Intervening variable = variable framing intervening phenomenon not included in a theory’s explanation. IntV are caused by the IV and cause the DV aka causal mechanism

Question 8

What makes a good theory good?

Answer 8

Large explanatory power
Simple/parsimonious
Clearly framed/specific
Falsifiable
Relevant to real-world problems
Prescriptive richness

Question 9

What makes statements or theories non falsifiable?

Answer 9

1. Vagueness
   Vague theories prevent us from inferring predictions/observable implications
2. Omnipredictions
   Predictions of a theory that are fulfilled by all observed events (all evidence is consistent with a theory)
3. Tautologies
   A tautology is a statement that is true by definition
   “Strong states are able to implement policies”–unless we can think of a way of identifying a strong state without reference to its ability to implement policies, then this statement cannot be falsified and is, therefore, not a theory
4. Statements about unobservable phenomena
   “God exists” or “God doesn’t exist” or “God created the world” are claims that cannot be falsified and therefore are not theories. This does NOT mean that these claims are nonsense or are necessarily false