LG514: International Relations Theory Lecture 5:Science v Tradition: Behaviouralism v the English School Ken McDonagh School of Law and Government

Overview The Philosophy of the Social Sciences Defining the 2 nd Debate: Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology The English School The Science of International Relations Limitations to the Scientific approach

The Philosophy of the Social Sciences: A very short introduction “it is ambition enough to be employed as an under- labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge” Locke 1841 Science v Tradition “The Social sciences thrive on two intellectual traditions. One is founded on the triumphant rise of natural science since the sixteenth century. The other is rooted in nineteenth-century ideas of history and the writing of history from the inside” Hollis and Smith 1994 P1

Defining the 2 nd Debate Ontology: ‘a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence’ Epistemology: ‘the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity’ (ibid) Methodology: ‘a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline : a particular procedure or set of procedures’

Defining the Second Debate Tradition (The English School) Science (American Behaviouralism) OntologyRealist Epistem- ology Positivist/EmpiricistLogical Positivist MethodQualitative, historicalQuantitative, scientific

The English Scool Coined in the 1970’s to refer to a group of writers including Wight, Bull, Vincent and Watson Anarchy Society of States ‘Rationalism’ and the ‘via media’- Both Utopian and realist approaches provide valuable insights

The English School Approach “International Theory: the case for a classical approach” (Bull, 1966) “The approach to theorising that derives from philosophy, history and law, and that is characterised above all by the explicit reliance upon the exercise of judgement” (p361) Rejection of scientific approach that seeks to establish lawlike generalisations based on strict standards of verification Defence of wisdom/experience but coupled with a problematic commitment to objectivity

Conjectures and refutations Popper and his critique of ‘naïve positivism’ “Observation is an intelligent activity of bringing concepts to bear” Hollis & Smith P 52 Simple Empiricism: observe, notice a pattern, generalize & test for new instances Popper argues that testing is what matters Falsification rather than confirmation as the basis for scientific progress in ‘increasing degrees of verisimilitude’ The choice then is amendment or discarding

The Behaviouralist approach J.D. Singer criticised Traditionalists for having “pinned down very little in the way of verified generalisations” (1969) The goal of behaviouralism was to construct hypothesized models of interstate behaviour that could be falsified against historical and contemporary fact

World Politics: The menu for choice (Russett 1981) “The most basic rationale for the study of social relations…must also rest on the similarities of events and the existence of regularities” (P31) The goal is a probabilistic explanation of human affairs informed by theory Explicit in its procedures rather than value free, judged against ‘objective’ facts

The achievements of the Behaviouralist approach The construction of databases – Correlates of War (Singer et al.) The development of methodologies: – Rational Choice – Experiments Simulations Statistical modelling

The 2 nd Debate revisited The English School represented an un- selfconscious positivism rather than a real alternative: – Bull conceded that anarchy was “the central fact of international life…the starting point of theorising” (1966, p35) – Lacked a convincing explanation/foundation for the Traditional Approach

The 2 nd Debate Assessed “version of a more or less decrepit [English School] empiricism…primarily inductive and idiosyncratic in orientation [pitted against] a predominantly American version of the same empiricist tradition…which favoured a more deductive approach and which drew upon pragmatism and logical positivism” (RBJ Walker p ) Essentially a debate within a paradigm Resistance to the Scientific approach based more on prejudice than reason This is not to say that the argument against a purely scientific approach can’t be made but that the English School didn’t make it