Epistemology of Social Sciences and International Relations.

Nevertheless, if an analyst attempts to adjust social sciences in strict rules or laws, as in natural sciences, then he will not be capable and flexible enough to deal with his/her subject and limits will be set. Additionally, because their subject is so multidimensional (human behavior) these limitations would be destructive for their research.

Furthermore, in contrast with the natural sciences in which an explanation of something that happens is very brief and exact, in International Relations and in social sciences, in general, explanation is something much more difficult. An analyst, in order to explain a situation in social sciences has to base it on the known factors that affected it. The problem here lies to the fact that not all the aspects of an issue are known for several reasons. For example, a country that declares war to another justifies its actions with a statement. Nevertheless, this statement can possibly be only an excuse and the reasons for this action are unknown because the state’s government keeps them safe and hidden. In this case every analyst has to search deeper and make assumptions to explain the situation, something that probably would be inaccurate. ‘Since in social sciences and hence in International Relations the parameters that should be taken into consideration are numerous and in many cases invisible and their existence and importance remains unknown, absolute certainty is very difficult to be claimed over the issue’. Any scholar of International Relations or social scientist has to bear this in mind. There are many examples of strong theories that seemed to be infallible and after a few more information given or viewing things through a different aspect they were knocked out.        

Another issue that should be mentioned is the role of the observer. The analysts and social scientists themselves are also human beings. They have their own values, believes, they support certain theories and are part of certain groups of interests. For making an accurate analysis over anything in social sciences someone has to step out of all these and make the observations from a neutral point of view. So the analysts must be very careful and they should not let their personal characteristics to intervene and affect their research.    

 

Philosophy of Social Science and International Relations

What are we doing when we attempt to study human social life in a systematic way? Can there be an objective knowledge of society when the investigators as well as the subject-matter are all part of the society? These are some questions that rule the philosophy of social sciences. ‘Philosophical questions are the kinds of questions we ask when we are being reflexive about our own disciplines’ 

The philosophy of social sciences provides to the researchers of this field of study some tools so that they are aware of what they are doing exactly. The first tool is the technical term “ontology“, which is the answer to the question: what kinds of things are there in the social world? Those who tried to answer this question are divided into four main traditions. Materialists argue that the social world is made up entirely of matter and the living characteristics of material objects, people and societies can be explained in terms of the complexity of the organization of matter. On the contrary, idealists argue that the ultimate reality is mental or spiritual because they base their knowledge on what they have experienced so far in their life and this is the only thing that they trust. The third tradition was established by Descartes who argued that in the process, the body and the mind are seen as two quite different things. That is called dualism. Finally, some social philosophers who deny anything that is beyond the limits of their own conscious experience were led to agnosticism.

These philosophical issues have passed successfully in the case of social sciences. There are controversies about what the constituents of the social world are. A significant dispute is the one that has to do with whether society is an independent reality in its own right. The argument against this statement is that society is nothing over and above the collection of individual people that make it up.

A second tool that is provided by the philosophy of social sciences is logic. The discipline of logic is an attempt to set down in a systematic way what makes the difference between a good and a bad argument. This procedure gives validity to an argument because we try to reach to a particular argument using some premises that would be accepted by everyone. For example, “if there is a peace settlement in Cyprus, this government has at least one great achievement to its credit.” “There is a peace settlement in Cyprus.” These two statements are the premises and therefore the argument should be: “This government has at least one great achievement to its credit”.

However, the philosophical background in social sciences is a need, hence in International Relations. Every political system and ideology have a philosophical background which support them. Political philosophy has the ability to give substance to the theories that are produced by social scientists and put them forward into reality to function as political systems.

The most obvious example is the application of Carl Marx’s theory in the political reality of the U.S.S.R. After the Russian Revolution, Lenin based his reforming program on the ideas of Marx’s theory about Communism. He made some adjustments according to the conditions of his country at that time, however in its vast majority it was Marx’s thoughts about how a Communist State should be ruled. 

Every political system is based on one or more theories, and in the International Relations field there are a lot of different systems to be analyzed and understood. At this exact point come the philosophy and the understanding of theories to assess their significant role and prove their contribution to the study of international Relations and social sciences in general.          

Conclusion

In this paper, there has been an attempt to be explained the contribution of epistemology and philosophy of social sciences to the understanding of the discipline of International Relations. My opinion is that the whole answer is clear. Despite the fact that this is a short paper, there are evidences that their contribution is very significant. To study a science, firstly you have to understand what exactly you are dealing with, in which way you have to analyze your subject and even know the limitations of your science. The knowledge of all these and the knowledge of the studies of other scientists of your field that have been made in the past should be the base for each researcher of social sciences, hence of International Relations.

This is however the way of the production of theories. For reaching to a new theory every social scientist has to know the existing theories that try to explain the function of a system. Having them in mind he/she can choose the points of each theory that he/she agrees or disagrees finally develop his/her own theory. In International relations any analyst or even political leader, in order to understand the actions of other states that may have a different political system than theirs, they have to analyze and realize the philosophy of that system. In this way they may react with other political leaders without having misunderstandings.

References

1. Ted Benton and Ian Craib, Philosophy of Social Science: the philosophical foundations of social thought, 2001, Palgrave editions, London

2. Yongling Ding, My View on Social Science Research, http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ylding/index.html

3. Clyde Higgins, Michael G. Richards, Individual, Family and Community: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Contemporary Life, San Antonio College, 2000,

         http://www.accd.edu/sac/interdis/2370/modsci.html

4. Alexandre Kirchberger, Marx, Ideology, and International Relations, http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:VOgiwvc6pwkJ:www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/SPT/journal/archive/pdf/issue63.pdf+marxist+theory+in+international+relations&hl=el&ie=UTF-8

Course: IREL 560 – Political Philosophy and Epistemology of International Relations

Course Coordinators: Dr. Keith Webb and Dr. Mirbagheri Farid

Title: The Necessity of Epistemology and Philosophy of Social Sciences to the Understanding of the Discipline of International Relations  

Scheme: MA in International Relations

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