Open AccessBeyond (Post)Positivism: The Missed Promises of Systemic Pragmatism 1
Author(s) -
HamatiAtaya Inanna
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.897
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1468-2478
pISSN - 0020-8833
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2011.00710.x
Subject(s) - pragmatism , realm , epistemology , positivism , foundationalism , realism , reflexivity , sociology , fallacy , historicity (philosophy) , consciousness , philosophy , politics , social science , political science , law
Hamati‐Ataya, Inanna. (2012) Beyond (Post)Positivism: The Missed Promises of Systemic Pragmatism. International Studies Quarterly , doi: 10.1111/j.1468‐2478.2011.00710.x
© 2012 International Studies Association This paper explores Pragmatism’s potential for transcending the antagonism between positivism and post‐positivism, through the work of Morton Kaplan, who combines a Pragmatist theory of knowledge with a systems theory of world politics. A reconstruction of Kaplan’s synoptic philosophy shows how Pragmatism can help us move beyond the dual fallacy of truth as correspondence and truth as self‐consciousness, to a non‐foundationalist epistemology that acknowledges the historicity of knowing without annihilating the realism of the common world we live in. Moving from the realm of knowledge to the realm of judgment, this paper also reconstructs Kaplan’s moral analysis, thereby revealing its significance for the discipline’s renewed concern for the problems of values and reflexivity.