Research Catalog

Title

Theory and evidence in comparative politics and international relations / edited by Richard Ned Lebow and Mark Irving Lichbach.

Publication

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Lebow, Richard Ned
• Lichbach, Mark Irving, 1951-

Description

x, 290 p. : ill.; 22 cm.

Summary

This book explores the epistemology and the methodology of political knowledge and social inquiry. What can we know, and how do we know? Friedrich V. Kratochwil and Ted Hopf question all foundational claims of inquiry and envisage science as a self-reflective practice. Brian Pollins and Fred Chernoff accept their arguments to some degree and explore the implications for logical positivism. David A. Waldner, Jack Levy, and Andrew Lawrence address the purpose and methods of research. They debate the role of explanation versus prediction, the relationship of theory to evidence, and their implications for the Democratic Peace research program. A concluding chapter by Mark Lichbach offers a pluralistic reformulation of neopositivism. An alternative conclusion by Steven Bernstein, Richard Ned Lebow, Janice Gross Stein and Steven Weber contends that social science should be modeled on medicine and reformulated as a set of case-based diagnostic tools. The distinguishing feature of the book is the inclusion of authors who represent different approaches to social science and their willingness to engage with one another in a constructive debate.

Series Statement

New visions in security

Uniform Title

New visions in security.

Subject

• Social sciences > Philosophy
• Social sciences > Methodology
• Political science > Philosophy
• Political science > Methodology
• Knowledge, Theory of
• Science > Philosophy
• Knowledge, Theory of
• SOCIAL SCIENCE > Methodology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

What Can We Know? How Do We Know? / Richard Ned Lebow -- Foundational Claims -- Evidence, Inference, and Truth as Problems of Theory Building in the Social Sciences / Friedrich V. Kratochwil -- The Limits of Interpreting Evidence / Ted Hopf -- The Product of Inquiry -- Beyond Logical Positivism: Reframing King, Keohane, and Verba / Brian Pollins -- Methodological Pluralism and the Limits of Naturalism in the Study of Politics / Fred Chernoff -- The Purpose and Methods of Research -- Transforming Inferences into Explanations: Lessons from the Study of Mass Extinctions / David A. Waldner -- Theory, Evidence, and Politics in the Evolution of International Relations Research Programs / Jack S. Levy -- Peace of Imperial Method?: Skeptical Inquiries into Ambiguous Evidence for the "Democratic Peace" / Andrew Lawrence -- New Directions -- Social Science as Case-Based Diagnostics / Steven Bernstein, Richard Ned Lebow, Janice Gross Stein and Steven Weber -- Theory and Evidence / Mark Irving Lichbach.

ISBN

• 140397456X (hc)
• 9781403974563 (hc)
• 1403976619 (pb)
• 9781403976611 (pb)
• 9781103974563 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2007060712

OCLC

• 80020220
• SCSB-11969355

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library