POL208Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pospolite Ruszenie, Perpetual Peace, Immanuel Kant
28 May 2018
School
Department
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Monday, May 7, 2018
POL208
Introduction !
International Relations: a relatively ‘new’, ‘messy’ field!
-Classical antiquity early modern era, and 19th c. Landmark works !
-Origins of modern inter-national system in 17th c. Europe !
-Systematic study began in early 20th c. !
-Took off after WW2 during Cold War!
-At first, descriptive- describes phenomena, later explanatory- explain more than one
event, string towards prediction !
-Discipline yet inter-disciplinary, involving history, economics, mathematics, legal
studies!
-alway relevant !
IR is a science: testing via observation or experiment falsifiable hypothesis about
causes and effects of phenomena it can be messy in the social sciences !
- Falsifiability: ability to prove something wrong or right therefore, testable !
- Causality: x affects or causes y or x to y new also call x the independent variable and
y the dependent variable !
- Variable: something that varies (a technical term for factor)!
-NB. Causality is different from correlation (a simple association between variables,
without a causal relation between them) !
…continue May 8th 2018 Background!
-Causation correlationHow to determine causality(How can we tell whether/when x to
y?/): The following must all apply:!
1. See if the variables x, y you are observing correlation !
2. Look for the temporal (chronological) order: case precedes effect !
3. Search of other potential explanations (could it be z to y?) !
#1
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Document Summary
Classical antiquity early modern era, and 19th c. landmark works. Origins of modern inter-national system in 17th c. europe. Systematic study began in early 20th c. Took o after ww2 during cold war. At rst, descriptive- describes phenomena, later explanatory- explain more than one event, string towards prediction. Discipline yet inter-disciplinary, involving history, economics, mathematics, legal studies. Ir is a science: testing via observation or experiment falsi able hypothesis about causes and e ects of phenomena it can be messy in the social sciences. Falsi ability: ability to prove something wrong or right therefore, testable. Causality: x a ects or causes y or x to y new also call x the independent variable and y the dependent variable. Variable: something that varies (a technical term for factor) Causality is di erent from correlation (a simple association between variables, without a causal relation between them)
