Post-Modern Constructivism 1. Ontology (Being) 2. Epistemology (Knowing) 3. Methodology (Verification) Post-Modernism: An epistemological critique

Philosophies of Inquiry Underlying theory of knowledge that defines the relationship between the investigator and the world that he or she is attempting to study

Examples of Theories of Knowledge 1. Positivism 2. Phenomenology 3. Linguistic Approaches 4. Post-Modern Approaches

Positivism Empiricist Tradition of the Early 19th Century “Relationship between measurable properties of objects, things, or persons”

Positivism (continued) Reliance on quantification: fragment “reality” into sets of observable data Objects are static fixed entities that are frozen in descriptions Speech is about “things” The language of inquiry is taken to be transparent

Phenomenology Intellectual counteroffensive against positivism at the turn of the 20th century (Husserl and Schutz) “The mind as an active, interventionist process that constructs the world of objects in imaginative enactments” Edmund Husserl

Phenomenology (continued) Privileges the actor rather than the object as the locus of meaning (“a knowing subject”) The subject is the author of “reality.” Subjects are the planners of their deeds and are therefore responsible Insensitive to the societal productions of meaning within which the author resides

Linguistic Analysis Focuses squarely on language as a locus of meaning “Language is not about objects and experience, it is constitutive of objects and experience” (Shapiro, 1983, p. 20)

Linguistic Analysis (continued) Language is more than a de-notational tool Statements are complex, rule-governed behavior Political positions are embeded in figures of speech, such as metaphors Figures of speech are not mere adornments: they help to produce our world

Language and Political Understanding A Seminar by Michael J. Shapiro 16 November 1983

Post-Modern Approaches View language as the “container” of possible practices within a discourse (profession). Speaking is not an innovative activity, but a selection from a fixed set of practices, governed by rules that are permissible in the language.

Post-Modernism (continued) Discoursive practices limit the range of objects that can be identified (e.g. Inuits and “snow’) Define the perspectives that one can legitimately regarded as “knowledge.” (e.g., the Bible) Constitute certain kinds of people as AGENTS of knowledge (e.g., the scientist, the doctor, or the bureaucrat) Thereby establishing norms for developing concept- izations that are used to “understand” the world

Post-Modern International Relations A Seminar by Nicholas Onuf at Syracuse University on 3 March 1995