At the Papini hotel: On pragmatism in the study of international relations

Franke, Ulrich; Weber, Ralph

doi:10.1177/1354066111404444

Cited by 46 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…These eclectic or problem‐driven pragmatists advocate a complexity‐sensitive research agenda that invites scholars to abandon paradigmatism and conduct pluri‐theoretical analyses. This trend—famously coined “analytic eclecticism” by Sil and Katzenstein ()—has attracted an increasing number of IR scholars over the past 20 years and is now considered to be one of the main pragmatic methodologies (Friedrichs and Kratochwil ; Friedrichs ; Franke and Weber ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Analytic Eclecticism in Practice: A Method for Combining International Relations Theories

Cornut

2014

Int Stud Perspect

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The relation of different theoretical approaches to one another is a disquieting question in International Relations (IR). Building on recent scholarship addressing the logic of questions and the analytical tools the scholarship provides for investigating the contributions of different explanations this piece argues that any and all explanations are an answer to a contrastive why-question. First, the article presents the objections to eclecticism. It then reviews the application of the logic of questions to IR and develops a "contrast theory" clarifying this logic: Seeking an explanation means delimiting a contrast space within a specific interrogatory context. The article lastly shows how these concepts help in thinking about post-foundational science of IR, that is, a science with no universal epistemological foundation to knowledge. I argue that the pragmatic, problem-driven and complexity-sensitive research agendas are a stronger foundation than currently predominant conceptualizations. An example, drawn from Iran's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons, helps illustrate the value-added by a logic of questions approach.

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confidence: 99%

Analytic Eclecticism in Practice: A Method for Combining International Relations Theories

Cornut

2014

Int Stud Perspect

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“…I am reasserting the ontological premises of pragmatism not so much to persuade others to adopt them, but to explain just what philosophical commitments one must make in order to coherently claim the various epistemological and methodological benefits of pragmatist philosophy of science. But as other scholars have already offered extended (Hellmann 2009;Jackson 2009;Franke and Weber 2011) and in some cases itemised (Kratochwil 2008) In this final section, I bring pragmatist social theory to bear on three such discussions, all related to certain persistent dualisms in the field. These dualisms do not define the field, and IR scholars have often transcended or avoided them, but they nevertheless shape the way IR theory is framed, synthesised, and contended by those engaged in producing it.…”

Section: Pragmatist Solutions To Ir Problemsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Pragmatism as Ontology, Not (Just) Epistemology: Exploring the Full Horizon of Pragmatism as an Approach to IR Theory

Pratt

2016

int stud rev

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This article is in many ways a pragmatist critique of pragmatism in IR, focusing on what practices scholars have mainly engaged in by drawing upon pragmatism and how to resolve problems that arise in considering them. Numerous scholars of international relations have drawn upon pragmatism to examine issues of interest to the field, largely (though not exclusively) of an epistemological or methodological nature, focusing mainly on pragmatism as a philosophy of science. Often overlooked, however, is that pragmatism is not just a philosophy of science but a distinctive and in some respects quite radical school of metaphysics, and it implies a particularly flexible form of social ontology. I thus argue for broader horizons in pragmatist theory in IR. I criticise the overly epistemological or methodological focus of the existing ways many IR scholars have used pragmatism, and discuss of how pragmatist social theory fits within existing scholarship in the field. Finally, I suggest how pragmatist social theory can contribute to ongoing IR research programmes by dissolving the dualisms of agent and structure, realism and idealism, and normative and strategic action. In other words, as a fairly coherent set of principles, pragmatism offers the foundations for a new movement in the study of international politics-indeed, such a movement has already begun, and I suggest that its horizons are particularly broad.

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“…Compare withJames's (1904, 473) very similar statement, 'Our judgments at any rate change the character of future reality by the acts to which they lead'. For an excellent discussion of James' ideas in relation to truth seeFranke and Weber (2012).…”

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Pragmatism, Realism and the ethics of crisis and transformation in international relations

Molloy

2014

Int. Theory

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This article examines Carr’s work in The Twenty Years’ Crisis and Conditions of Peace in the light of an analogy that Carr draws between his work and that of the American pragmatist philosopher, William James. The article argues that one gains a greater understanding of the internal workings of Carr’s most important IR works if one understands him as operating within the pragmatist tradition (as James understood it). A further aim of the paper is to investigate the evolution in Carr’s ethical commitment to peace in The Twenty Years' Crisis and Conditions of Peace as a product of a pragmatist perspective on global politics. The article concludes with a section on how pragmatist Realist ethics complements existing theories of Realist ethics in IR by reference to Richard Ned Lebow’s The Tragic Vision of Politics and Michael C. Williams’ The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations.

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At the Papini hotel: On pragmatism in the study of international relations

Cited by 46 publications

References 53 publications

Analytic Eclecticism in Practice: A Method for Combining International Relations Theories

Analytic Eclecticism in Practice: A Method for Combining International Relations Theories

Pragmatism as Ontology, Not (Just) Epistemology: Exploring the Full Horizon of Pragmatism as an Approach to IR Theory

Pragmatism, Realism and the ethics of crisis and transformation in international relations

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