Philosophy in International Relations: A Scientific Realist Approach

How Does Scientific Realism Relate to International Relations?The first question that most people interested in this forum will want to ask is; can we develop a specifically scientific realist school of IR?To get any disappointment out of the way so that we can move on to alternative questions, the short answer is no.Scientific realism is not a theory.In the main, I will draw on Marxism for my theoretical examples, while employing scientific realism to critically examine Marxist and other theoretical claims.Of course, scientific realism can be put to work on a range of different theories, although I find its relationship to Marxist theory the most convincing.What should be clearly stated, however, is that unless we want to change what we understand by scientific realism, we cannot meaningfully speak of a scientific realist theory of international politics.This should not come as a surprise.When we talk of a realist theory of politics we immediately think of a substantive set of arguments related to the nature of politics and political activity that lays emphasis on the role of the state, power politics, self-interest, anarchy of the international system, and so on.This is a very different type of realism from the one we wish to develop here and when asked about the difference between political realism and scientific realism we inevitably find ourselves saying that they deal with different things or subject matters, one being a political theory or school, the other a philosophical approach that argues for the independent existence of reality, separate from our attempts to explain or understand it.If we are so quick to make this distinction between theory and philosophy when asked whether scientific realism is related to political realism, why should we suddenly wish to abandon it and claim that scientific realism can also become a theory of IR? Scientific realism, therefore, is a philosophical position.In the simplest sense, realism means a belief in the independent existence of reality.In the line-up of different philosophical positions realism stands against idealist, hermeneutic, most constructivist and most poststructuralist philosophical positions on this issue. 2Those approaches that draw on or are influenced by positivism, by contrast, may possibly ____________ 1. Thanks to Doug Stokes, David Leon, Silviya Lechner and the referees for helpful comments.All the mistakes are mine.2. Insofar as constructivism believes that the (social) world is socially constructed and is bound up with our beliefs and understandings.Poststructuralism argues that we can only know the world through the 'text' or particular discourses.Whether there is a 'real world' beyond this is a matter of little consequence.