The Impossible Dream: Theorising in International Relations without the Philosophy of Science.

This paper assesses the role of the philosophy of science and the philosophy of social science in political science and cognate disciplines. Why have the philosophy of science and the philosophy of social science played such a major role in key debates within the political sciences? What if anything can we learn from them? Why do we need to turn to these disciplines for cognitive support anyway? Many political scientists treat these meta-theoretical debates with suspicion deeming them to be an unwanted distraction to the development of a body of knowledge of political processes and events. One of the great paradoxes of the modern age is that the natural sciences only entered what has come to be known as their 'mature' stage when they left philosophy behind. Why can the social sciences not effect a similar separation? This paper examines the function and aims of the philosophy of science in theoretical debates within political science. It argues that for ontological, epistemological, conceptual, cognitive and moral reasons the social sciences simply cannot proceed on that basis. The social world itself is shot through with philosophical concepts and any science of that world needs to be cognizant of the role these concepts play in structuring behaviour. It is not that we need to bring philosophy into political science, but that it is already in in a myriad of ways. The question then becomes one of uncovering the often implicit philosophies that structure all inquiry, even those that deny it a role. As Keynes remarked those who disliked theory, or claimed to get along better without it, they are simply in the grip of an older theory. This applies as much to theories of what good political science is as much as to theories of political behaviour. An analysis of these issues demonstrates that the attempt to construct an 'autonomous theory of politics' is an impossible dream that already reflects an implicit philosophy of science. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]