week 2 - epistemology and ontology

Question 1

can politics be scientific?

Answer 1

cannot agree on areas of power, known as areas of contestation
power, ideology, institutional bias and racism are abstract.
political fundamentals are open to contestation
difficult to be value free and neutral, hard to be objective
cultural relativism problem
normative assumptions

Question 2

what are theories?

Answer 2

theories represent a system of ideas to explain an event
deductive - theory first and applied to evidence
inductive - start with evidence to build a theory.

Question 3

what is the rational choice theory?

Answer 3

individuals are driven by rational thought and calculations, humans make rational cost-benefit before choosing a course of action

Question 4

what is ontology?

Answer 4

the study of being or existence
what exists in the world?

Question 5

what are the different approaches in ontology?

Answer 5

foundationalism
anti-foundationalism

Question 6

what is foundationalism?

Answer 6

asserts that there is a real world out there, independent from our knowledge
firm foundation that we can build reliable knowledge from
there is an objective foundation

Question 7

what is anti-foundationalism?

Answer 7

rejects the possibility of there being a real identifiable world which we can discover the reality of

Question 8

what is epistemology?

Answer 8

the study of knowledge
how can we know what exists in the world, how can we discover it?

Question 9

what are the different approaches in epistemology?

Answer 9

positivism
relativism
realism

Question 10

what is positivism?

Answer 10

foundationalist approach
scientific method associated
theories and hypotheses, tested using observation or empirical research

Question 11

what is relativism?

Answer 11

anti-foundationalist approach
problem is epistemology, not objective
there is no real world to discover, cannot access the real world as we cannot see beyond our experiences and biases
interpretivism
all knowledge is socially constructed and transmitted through culture and language

Question 12

what is realism?

Answer 12

foundationalist approach
facts discovered by empirical research and observation
cannot always observe every type of social phenomena but able to see the effect
deep structures exist which need to be interpreted
causal relationship

Question 13

why are ontology and epistemology important?

Answer 13

starting point in which we come to define and interpret politics and power
shapes the types of conclusions we reach about the nature of power

Question 14

how do Marxist and elitists see power?

Answer 14

power is the ability to manipulate and a manufactured consent for authority

Question 15

what does Robert Dahl say about power?

Answer 15

1st face - A has power over B

Question 16

who is Foucault?

Answer 16

radical theorist, Dahl’d explanation is too simple
he is post-structuralist

Question 17

what is structure?

Answer 17

defined broadly as the context or set of external institutions, rules, traditions and power structures which limit and influence free will as individuals
context of which agents operate within

Question 18

what are agents?

Answer 18

actors refer to individuals or groups often posed by political scientists who are attempting to make choices and influence change
Thatcher and Trump

Question 19

what are the faces of power?

Answer 19

1st - decision making Robert Dahl A makes a decision that influences B
2nd - agenda setting, Bachrach and Baratz, when A makes a decision, someone has already limited the choices for them
3rd - preference shaping, Lukes, the decision we feel we want to make are constructed or produced through broader influences.

Question 20

what are the mainstream views on power?

Answer 20

underpinned by a positivism methodology
emphasise the first two faces of power

Question 21

what are the radical views on power?

Answer 21

look beyond the directly observable influences on behaviour
emphasise the way in which ideas and societal structures impact on behaviour and structures of social world.
preference shaping pressures