Theory and Evidence in Comparative Politics and International Relations

This book explores the epistemology and the methodology of political knowledge and social inquiry: what can we know, and how do we know? Contributing authors offer answers, addressing the purpose and methods of research and analyzing concepts, including the relationship of theory and evidence and the importance of medicine to social science.

"Theory and Evidence provides a much-needed overview of the post-positivist developments in the philosophy of science that are pushing social scientists to re-examine their epistemological and methodological commitments. The essays are accessible and yet informed by a challenging philosophical literature on such subjects as scientific realism and naturalism. Although the editors and contributors range from neo-positivist to interpretivist views, they directly engage one another rather than speaking past each other, and they avoid either Procrustean resolutions or ambiguous compromises among their diverse perspectives. What emerges is a lively and open-minded dialogue that deserves a wide audience in research design and philosophy of social science courses not just in political science, but in economics, sociology, history, and anthropology."

• Andrew Bennett, Professor of Government, Georgetown University'At last, a book that sets forth the terms of a challenging dialogue about the epistemological and ontological foundations of empirical political inquiry. A superb antidote for that large body of empirical research that is mired in a naive positivism long abandoned by philosophy of science, supported by a brilliant case for tolerant methodological pluralism.'

• David Easton, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Irvine and Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago

  Autorentext
  RICHARD NED LEBOW is James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government, Dartmouth College, USA.

  MARK IRVING LICHBACH is Professor and Chair of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, USA.

  Inhalt
  Introduction What Can We Know? How Do We Know?; R.N.Lebow Foundational Claims Evidence, Inference, and Truth as Problems of Theory Building in the Social Sciences; F.V.Kratochwil The Limits of Interpreting Evidence; T.Hopf The Product of Inquiry Beyond Logical Positivism: Reframing King, Keohane, and Verba; B.Pollins Methodological Pluralism and the Limits of Naturalism in the Study of Politics; F.Chernoff The Purpose and Methods of Research Transforming Inferences into Explanations: Lessons from the Study of Mass Extinctions; D.A.Waldner Theory, Evidence, and Politics in the Evolution of International Relations Research Programs; J.S. Levy Peace of Imperial Method?: Skeptical Inquiries into Ambiguous Evidence for the "Democratic Peace"; A.Lawrence New Directions Social Science as Case-Based Diagnostics; S.Bernstein , R.N.Lebow , J.Gross Stein & S.Weber Theory and Evidence; M.I.Lichbach