POLB81H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Postpositivism, Scientific Method, Imre Lakatos
11 Jan 2017
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Week 2 (lecture #2): monday january 9th 2017. Theories are tools: they are analytical lenses through which we can see the world in particular ways. Since 1960s, social sciences have aspired to be more scientific (as opposed to historical or philosophical. Ontologies remain debated (-isms), but positivist epistemology has been dominant: robust but less influential post-positivism. Positivism focuses on use of a modified scientific method to establish causation (identifying specific causes for specific effects) You have a hypothesis, then you test it, and if the relationship you expect to see is actually there. Confidence in scientific knowledge can only be produced in repetition. You need to control for things (ie: if you take out one part, will everything change?) But mainstream political science and ir scholarship remains strongly attached to positivism as means of producing knowledge. Two (related) aspects of theory: theory is an analytical tool: Helps to explain and understand the world: theory is a normative tool:
