INR 2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Stephen Walt, Post-Structuralism, Neoliberalism

• School: University of Florida
• Department: International Relations
• Course: INR 2001
• Professor: Laura E Sjoberg

Document Summary

Fourth great debate: between rationalist and re ectivist theories. Central di erences are epistemological and methodological (how we know what we claim to know) and only secondarily about what the world is like (ontology: rationalist. Accept a notion of foundationalism, whereby there are secure grounds for making knowledge claims about a world that is separate from the theories commenting on it. What do these theories share: three signi cant assumptions: First, and chief among these, is their shared commitment to the importance of theory in understanding the world. All theories have a history, though not always within the discipline of ir. Each of the chapters makes claims about the linkages between theory and practice in a variety of ways.