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Showing papers on "Realism published in 1998"


Journal ArticleDOI

513 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a three-part, synoptic framework that could ease the way beyond the current impasse of competition among the various metatheoretical orientations (e.g. realism vs. social constructivism, positivism vs. cultural theory, etc.) in the risk field is presented.
Abstract: The first goal of this paper is to sketch a three-part, synoptic framework that could ease the way beyond the current impasse of competition among the various metatheoretical orientations (e.g. realism vs. social constructivism, positivism vs. cultural theory, etc.) in the risk field. The framework will be constructed on a foundation of metatheoretical principles and its form will accommodate the best features of the competing orientations. Because the articulated principles will build first on a position of realism, we can refer to the framework as a whole as Reconstructed Realism (RR). Because the content of the framework comprises its first two key parts, ontological realism and epistemological hierarchicalism , we can refer to the content by the acronym OREH. The second goal of the paper is to epistemically connect the synoptic framework, RR, to a methodological framework for conducting risk analysis, thereby providing a bridge between theory and practice. The existing methodological framework that be...

440 citations


Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Art and Objecthood as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays and reviews written by Fried from 1962 to 1977, focusing on the relationship between painting and beholder in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and his critique of minimalism, particularly the work of Morris and Donald Judd.
Abstract: Michael Fried. Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. The Michael Fried of Art and Objecthood is a marvel of certitude, and in James Joyce's Stephen Hero he has found a nearly perfect epigraph for this collection of his art criticism: "[H]e was persuaded that no-one served the generation into which he had been born so well as he who offered it, whether in his art or in his life, the gift of certitude." Fried's writings on art divide between two distinct periods. Art and Objecthood collects his art criticism from 1962 to 1977. In the early 1970s, Fried ceased to make criticism his main endeavor and instead rededicated himself to art history. The result has been Absorption and Theatricality, Courbet's Realism, and Manet's Modernism, an epic, three-volume study of the origins of modernist painting cast in terms of the relationship between painting and beholder in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. If the later, art-historical period finds Fried, in his own words, "resolutely nonjudgmental," then the earlier, art-critical period finds Fried packing a career's-or a lifetime's?-worth of strongly argued evaluation into the span of a decade and a half. As a critic, Fried is synonymous with the demand that art compel conviction. Art and Objecthood is proof that nowhere in art criticism of the period in question will you find conviction to match Fried's. The frontispiece to Art and Objecthood is Frank Stella's Portrait of Michael Fried Standing on His Head Far above Cayuga 's Waters, and the will to stand on one's head and the remarkable will to judgment in these essays strikes the reader as poetically commensurate. I smiled. Fried's criticism has itself compelled conviction in the manner of a lightning rod-heated, angry conviction-and it is no exaggeration to say that his 1967 essay "Art and Objecthood" has provoked more debate than any other piece of art criticism in the last three decades. Fried's critics may find strength in numbers, but that isn't to say it hasn't been a fair fight. "Art and Objecthood" is Fried's critique of minimalism, particularly the work of Robert Morris and Donald Judd, on the basis of what he terms its "theatricality"-the work's appeal to the viewer by means of staging a particular presence, a mode Fried judges "surefire" and "inartistic." There have been several occasions since the publication of "Art and Objecthood" in which Fried has responded to his critics; one has the impression in reading the lengthy, fascinating introduction to this volume that he hopes these will be his final words on that essay. What is the gist of Fried's revisitation of "Art and Objecthood" three decades down the line? There isn't much that he would change. …

286 citations


Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The role of philosophy in human progress is discussed in this paper, with a focus on human answerability to the world and its relation to human rights, rationality, and sentimentality.
Abstract: Introduction Part I. Truth and Some Philosophers: 1. Is truth a goal of inquiry?: Donald Davidson vs. Crispin Wright 2. Hilary Putnam and the relativist menace 3. John Searle on realism and relativism 4. Charles Taylor on truth 5. Daniel Dennett on intrinsicality 6. Robert Brandom on social practices and representations 7. The very idea of human answerability to the world: John McDowell's Version of Empiricism 8. Anti-sceptical weapons: Michael Williams vs. Donald Davidson Part II. Moral Progress: Towards more Inclusive Communities: 9. Human rights, rationality, and sentimentality 10. Rationality and cultural difference 11. Feminism and pragmatism 12. The end of Leninism, Havel and social hope Part III. The Role of Philosophy in Human Progress: 13. The historiography of philosophy: four genres 14. The contingency of philosophical problems: Michael Ayers on Locke 15. Dewey between Hegel and Darwin 16. Habermas, Derrida and the functions of philosophy 17. Derrida and the philosophical tradition.

285 citations


Book
28 Apr 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the relationship between realism, Relativism, Social Constructionism, and Constructivism and Realism in the context of psychology and discuss the effects of Monism and Dualism.
Abstract: Foreword - Rom Harr[ac]e Realism, Relativism and Critique in Psychology - Ian Parker PART ONE: DEBATES Overview - Vivien Burr Realism, Relativism, Social Constructionism and Discourse Fragments in the Realization of Relativism - Jonathan Potter Language, Practice and Realism - Andrew Collier What Is To Be Done? (With Apologies to Lenin!) - Ruth Merttens As One in a Web? Discourse, Materiality and the Place of Ethics - Steven D Brown and Joan Pujol with Beryl C Curt Social Constructionism and Revolutionary Socialism - Carla Willig A Contradiction in Terms? PART TWO: COMMENTARIES Across the S-S Divide - Don Foster The Perverse and Pervasive Character of Reality - Maritza Montero Some Comments on the Effects of Monism and Dualism Psychology's Subject - Bronwyn Davies A Commentary on the Relativism/Realism Debate Constructionism and Realism - Kenneth J Gergen How Are We To Go On?

275 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that history has provided the theoretical tools to meet modern challenges, and that great political minds of the past can still guide modern politicians through the confusion of current events, and recommend that they be applied to today's fundamental international dilemmas.
Abstract: He explores their enduring theories, and recommends that they be applied to today's fundamental international dilemmas. Although no one school has all the answers, this analysis maintains that history has provided the theoretical tools to meet modern challenges, and that great political minds of the past can still guide modern politicians through the confusion of current events.

266 citations


Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In this article, Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness.
Abstract: This book presents a systematic account of the role of the personal spiritual ideal of wu-wei-literally "no doing," but better rendered as "effortless action"-in early Chinese thought. Edward Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness. This concept of effortlessness, he contends, serves as a common ideal for both Daoist and Confucian thinkers. He also argues that this concept contains within itself a conceptual tension that motivates the development of early Chinese thought: the so-called "paradox of wu-wei," or the question of how one can consciously "try not to try." Methodologically, this book represents a preliminary attempt to apply the contemporary theory of conceptual metaphor to the study of early Chinese thought. Although the focus is upon early China, both the subject matter and methodology have wider implications. The subject of wu-wei is relevant to anyone interested in later East Asian religious thought or in the so-called "virtue-ethics" tradition in the West. Moreover, the technique of conceptual metaphor analysis-along with the principle of "embodied realism" upon which it is based-provides an exciting new theoretical framework and methodological tool for the study of comparative thought, comparative religion, intellectual history, and even the humanities in general. Part of the purpose of this work is thus to help introduce scholars in the humanities and social sciences to this methodology, and provide an example of how it may be applied to a particular sub-field.

244 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Relational realism as mentioned in this paper places greater emphasis on the pragmatic elements of explanation, supporting a more relational, causal-historical, and problem-driven view of theory, and a renewed appreciation of what is defined as Kuhn's historical episte-mology provides the foundation for evaluating these competing research programs.
Abstract: An alarm has been sounded that historical sociology is subverting the theoretical aims of social science. Criticizing an array of widely influential scholars, Kiser and Hechter propose that rational choice theory can avoid the trend toward "empiricism" that results from the import of history into sociology. Their position is based on theoretical realism–a radically antipositivist thesis that uses ontological and theoretical postulates to theorize about reality beyond positive appearance. A close examination of theoretical realism casts doubts on the epistemological foundations of rational choice theory. Relational realism, the alternative introduced here, places greater emphasis on the pragmatic elements of explanation, supporting a more relational, causal‐historical, and problem‐driven view of theory. A renewed appreciation of what is defined as Kuhn's historical episte‐mology provides the foundation for evaluating these competing research programs.

194 citations


Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The End(s) of Ethnography: From Realism to Social Criticism as discussed by the authors was one of the first books to bring the cultural criticism of ethnographic writing to sociology.
Abstract: The End(s) of Ethnography: From Realism to Social Criticism was one of the first books to bring the cultural criticism of ethnographic writing to sociology. Clough's unique blend of feminist theory, psychoanalysis, poststructural criticism, Marxist cultural studies, and science studies offers rich insights into the relationship of ethnographic writing and the realist narrative that informs the mass media from the novel to computer technology. Clough's critical readings of the works of Herbert Blumer, Howard Becker, Erving Goffmann, and Toni Morrison are gems of postmodern sensibility. In a new preface, Clough reviews the intellectual context that first produced the criticism of ethnography and offers her perspective on the current experiments in ethnographic writing. The new preface is as stimulating as Clough's original take on ethnographic writing.

188 citations


Book
14 Dec 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, White collects eight interrelated essays primarily concerned with the treatment of history in recent literary critical discourse, focusing on the conventions of historical writing and the ordering of historical consciousness.
Abstract: "Hayden White...is the most prominent American scholar to unite historiography and literary criticism into a broader reflection on narrative and cultural understanding." --'The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism' In his earlier books such as 'Tropics of Discourse' and 'The Content of the Form', Hayden White focused on the conventions of historical writing and on the ordering of historical consciousness. In 'Figural Realism', White collects eight interrelated essays primarily concerned with the treatment of history in recent literary critical discourse. "'History' is not only an object we can study," writes White, "it is also and even primarily a certain kind of relationship to 'the past' mediated by a distinctive kind of written discourse. It is because historical discourse is actualized in its culturally significant form as a specific kind of writing that we may consider the relevance of literary theory to both the theory and the practice of historiography."

187 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sokal's controversy has generated bitter divisions between academics who only a decade ago might have stood together on the left or the right and has forged equally strange alliances as mentioned in this paper, leading to the split between epistemological and ontological positions which are usually described as radical constructivism and realist positivism.
Abstract: Perhaps the fiercest conflict within the social sciences today is one that is not even articulated as a recognizable “debate.” Nevertheless, this conflict has generated bitter divisions between academics who only a decade ago might have stood together on the left or the right and has forged equally strange alliances. I am referring, of course, to the split between epistemological and ontological positions which are usually described as radical constructivism and realist positivism. The recent debate provoked by Alan Sokal's article in Social TextSee Alan D. Sokal, “Transgressing the Boundaries—Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” Social Text (Spring-Summer 1996), 217–52; and idem, “A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies,” Lingua Franca (May-June 1996), 62–64. The key response is Stanley Fish's article, “Professor Sokal's Bad Joke,” in The New York Times (Opinion–Editorial page, May 21, 1996); see also the responses in the July-August 1996 issue of Lingua Franca; Michael Albert, “Science, Post Modernism, and the Left,” in Z Magazine (July-August 1996); Steven Weinberg, “Sokal's Hoax,” New York Review of Books (August 8, 1996), 11–15; and Tom Frank, “Textual Reckoning,” In These Times (May 27, 1996). I am grateful to Michael Rosenfeld for references to the latter two pieces. brought into sharp focus the growing sense of distrust and anger that divides these academic camps. And, yet, the heterogeneity of each supposed grouping suggests that the dichotomous model masks what is actually a much more complex, multi-dimensional field. On the one hand we find a motley assemblage of positions variously characterized as constructivism, culturalism, neo-Kantian idealism, and postmodernism; the other pole throws together a set of even stranger bedfellows, including rational choice theorists, survey researchers, and traditional historians alongside “realist” philosophers of various stripes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The popularity of alternative approaches to international politics cannot be explained entirely by their scholarly virtues Among the other factors at work are fashions and normative and political preferences This in part explains the increasing role of rationalism and constructivism as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The popularity of alternative approaches to international politics cannot be explained entirely by their scholarly virtues Among the other factors at work are fashions and normative and political preferences This in part explains the increasing role of rationalism and constructivism Important as they are, these approaches are necessarily less complete than liberalism, Marxism, and realism Indeed, they fit better with the latter than is often realized Realism, then, continues to play a major role in IR scholarship It can elucidate the conditions and strategies that are conducive to cooperation and can account for significant international change, including a greatly decreased tolerance for force among developed countries, which appears to be currently the case But neither it nor other approaches have as yet proved to be reliable guides to this new world

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Realism in International Relations and International Political Economy as discussed by the authors is the continuing story of a death foretold, and it is also related to our work on international political economy and international relations.
Abstract: Realism in International Relations and International Political Economy : the continuing story of a death foretold


Book
22 May 1998
TL;DR: Cooper as mentioned in this paper contextualizes magical realism within current debates and theories of postcoloniality and examines the fiction of three of its West African pioneers: Syl Cheney-Coker of Sierra Leone, Ben Okri of Nigeria and Kojo Laing of Ghana.
Abstract: This study contextualizes magical realism within current debates and theories of postcoloniality and examines the fiction of three of its West African pioneers: Syl Cheney-Coker of Sierra Leone, Ben Okri of Nigeria and Kojo Laing of Ghana. Brenda Cooper explores the distinct elements of the genre in a West African context, and in relation to: * a range of global expressions of magical realism, from the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to that of Salman Rushdie * wider contemporary trends in African writing, with particular attention to how the realism of authors such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka has been connected with nationalist agendas. This is a fascinating and important work for all those working on African literature, magical realism, or postcoloniality.

Book
31 Dec 1998
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the relationship between capital and nature in the late nineteenth-century countryside and the literature of rural realism, and present a survey of the history of rural realism in the United States.
Abstract: Introduction: The Alchemy of Capital and Nature Why the Late Nineteenth-Century Countryside? The Discourse of Rural Realism Why Rural Realism, Why the Novel? Stalking the Interdisciplinary Wilds Reference Maps Part I: Making Geographies 1. Rural Commodity Ragtimes: A Primer The Logics and Illogics of Production: The Shift to and out of Grain The Regime of Specialty Crops A Wider Division of Labor: The Country in the City 2. Nature and Fictitious Capital: The Circulation of Money Capital Capitalism and Nature: The Agrarian Nexus Axis One: The Mann-Dickinson Thesis, Nature as Obstacle Axis Two: Exploiting the Natural Obstacle Keeping Capitalism Out or Letting Capital In? Marx on Circulation Blurred Boundaries and Fugitive Bodies Nature and Circulation Capital, Nature, and the Space-Time of Agro-Credits in the United States Capital, Nature, and the Space-Time of Agro-Credits in California Conclusion: Reading the Landscape of Fictitious Capital 3. Toward Rural Realism: Variable Capital, Variable Capitalists, and the Fictions of Capital The Way to Get Farm Labor? The Ever-New, Ever-Same, 1: Continuity of Wage Labor and Changes in the Wage Labor Market The Ever-New, Ever-Same, 2: Resistance and Reaction Racializing the Working Body and Multicultural Racism Toward Rural Realism: An Agrarianism without Illusions? Variable Capitalists All: Capitalist Laborers and the Fictions of Capital in Country and City Coda: The Labor of Fiction Part II: Excavating Geographical Imaginations Introduction Many Countrysides The Trials of Capital and Narratives of Social Space The Narrative of Social Space in Rural Realism 4. Mussel Slough and the Contradictions of Squatter Capitalism The Commodification of Mussel Slough: Railroad, Speculators, and Squatters Converge in the Tulare Basin Blood Money and the Anatomy of Development The Country and the City: From Transgression to Similitude The Octopus and the Bourgeois Sublime Bourgeois Discourse and the Uses of Nature 5. Reality Redux: Landscapes of Boom and Bust in Southern California Where Is Southern California? From Ranchos to Real Estate The Boom of the 1880s The Southern California Boom Novel Conclusion: Production, a Necessary Evil 6. Romancing the Sand: Earth-Capital and Desire in the Imperial Valley The Problem Engineers and Entrepreneurs Producing the Imperial Valley What a Difference a Flood Makes Imperial Valley Representations, 1: Promotion and Its (Dis)Contents Imperial Valley Representations, 2: The Winning of Barbara Worth and the Erotics of Western Conquest Conclusion: Engineering Rural Realism 7. Take Me to the River: Water, Metropolitan Growth, and the Countryside Designer Ducts Los Angeles and the Owens Valley San Francisco and Hetch Hetchy Valley Rural Eclipse: The Water-Bearer and The Ford Wither Rural Realism? Conclusion Notes References Index

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined Japan's postwar foreign policy both against structural realism and against what they call "mercantile realism", which recognizes technoeconomic security interests-including, but not limited to, those associated with military security-as central considerations of state policy.
Abstract: International relations scholars have largely overlooked Japan in their surveys of great power politics. At the same time, students of Japan frequently focus on a single policy area or on Japan’s bilateral relations with specific states and have generally failed to test Japan’s larger strategic calculus against international relations theory.’ Those who have examined Japanese grand strategy typically adopt a structural realist model, under which states are motivated primarily by the fundamental imperative of military security and frequently subordinate other goals to that end. Some scholars, observing divergence from behavior predicted by this theory, have concluded that Japan’s foreign policy is nonrealist or otherwise exceptional.2 In this article, we examine Japan’s postwar foreign policy both against structural realism and against what we call ”mercantile realism,” which recognizes technoeconomic security interests-including, but not limited to, those associated with military security-as central considerations of state policy. We conclude that although Japan clearly does not ignore military security,

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Neuman as mentioned in this paper discusses International Relations Theory and the Third World: An Oxymoron? S.G.Neuman Beyond Anarchy: Third World Instability and International Order after the Cold War A.J.Puchala A Critique of the Critics B.Buzan Conclusion.
Abstract: Introduction: International Relations Theory and the Third World: An Oxymoron? S.G.Neuman Beyond Anarchy: Third World Instability and International Order after the Cold War A.Acharya Subaltern Realism: IR Theory Meets the Third World M.Ayoob The Primacy of Internal War S.David Peripheral Realism and the Interstate System: Argentina and the Condor II Missle Project C.Escude International Theory and Domestic War in the Third World K.J.Holsti Third World Thinking and Contemporary International Relations D.J.Puchala A Critique of the Critics B.Buzan Conclusion: The Future of International Relations Theory S.G.Neuman

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argued that the banner of scientific realism makes it difficult to relate the concerns of those who wave it (Tony Lawson and Uskali Maki) to those of other methodologists and argued that many of the debates in this century between scientific realists and their opponents are not relevant to economics.
Abstract: This essay attempts to distinguish the pressing issues for economists and economic methodologists concerning realism in economics from those issues that are of comparatively slight importance. In particular I shall argue that issues concerning the goals of science are of considerable interest in economics, unlike issues concerning the evidence for claims about unobservables, which have comparatively little relevance. In making this argument, this essay raises doubts about the two programs in contemporary economic methodology that raise the banner of realism. In particular I argue that the banner makes it more difficult to relate the concerns of those who wave it (Tony Lawson and Uskali Maki) to those of other methodologists. Although this essay argues that many of the debates in this century between scientific realists and their opponents are not relevant to economics, it does not attack scientific realism, and it does not urge economists or economic methodologists to reject it.

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The authors proposes a pan-experientialist physicalism grounded in the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, which can finally provide a naturalistic account of the emergence of consciousness -an account that also does justice to the freedom that we all presuppose in practice.
Abstract: The mind-body problem, which Schopenhauer called the 'world-knot', has been a central problem for philosophy since the time of Descartes. Among realists - those who accept the reality of the physical world - the two dominant approaches have been dualism and materialism, but there is a growing consensus that, if we are ever to understand how mind and body are related, a radically new approach is required. David Ray Griffin develops a third form of realism, one that resolves the basic problem (common to dualism and materialism) of the continued acceptance of the Cartesian view of matter.In dialogue with various philosophers, including Dennett, Kim, McGinn, Nagel, Seager, Searle, and Strawson, Griffin shows that materialist physicalism is even more problematic than dualism. He proposes instead a pan-experientialist physicalism grounded in the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Answering those who have rejected 'pan-psychism' as obviously absurd, Griffin argues compellingly that pan-experientialism, by taking experience and spontaneity as fully natural, can finally provide a naturalistic account of the emergence of consciousness - an account that also does justice to the freedom that we all presuppose in practice.

Journal ArticleDOI
Jochen Runde1
01 Apr 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, an alternative, causal, approach to economic explanation is proposed and the authors attempt to answer an important question often asked about it: how should causal economic explanations be assessed?
Abstract: Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in causal realism in the methodology of economics. Some of this literature reflects a strong scepticism about the existence of sharp event-regularities or 'laws' in the economic realm and, accordingly, about the prospects for the covering-law approach to explanation that dominates modern economic theory. This paper outlines an alternative, causal, approach to economic explanation and attempts to answer an important question often asked about it: how should causal economic explanations be assessed?

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors in question were familiar with the type of thinking that later came to be called Realist, but held that industrial modernisation rendered it increasingly anachronistic and dangerous.
Abstract: The article presents a “revisionist” synopsis of the thinking of some important early twentieth-century “Idealist” IR writers. I contend that these writers ground their interpretations of international relations on a shared paradigm that has hitherto gone largely unrecognised. Following a critique of certain widely held views of IR Idealism, I draw attention to a number of aspects or themes in this body of writing in an attempt to establish the underlying paradigm. I argue that the authors in question were familiar with the type of thinking that later came to be called Realist, but held that industrial modernisation rendered it increasingly anachronistic and dangerous. The crucial difference between Idealism and Realism is in their respective theories of history. In order to understand Idealist IR thinking, it is essential to realise the extent to which it relies on the notion, not so much of progress (as is usually asserted) as of an inescapable, directional historical process.

Journal ArticleDOI
Caroline New1
TL;DR: The authors argue for the reality of sex difference and put forward a realist defence of a modified Feminist Standpoint Theory, arguing that women's diversity rules out communality and collective interests, and that FST unawarely takes white middle class women as representative.
Abstract: Feminist Standpoint Theory claims that by virtue of their social positioning women have access to, or can achieve, particular and/or better knowledge of gendered social relations. The epistemology, various versions of which are reviewed in the paper, has been criticised for over homogenising women. In its simplest form this critique claims that women’s diversity rules out communality and collective interests, and that FST unawarely takes white middle class Western women as representative. In its stronger, postructuralist form this critique undermines feminism by reducing the category ‘women’ to an effect of discourse whose referent is, and should be, constantly shifting. The paper argues for the reality of sex difference and puts forward a realist defence of a modified Feminist Standpoint Theory.

Book
22 Dec 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, Lynch develops an original version of metaphysical pluralism, which he calls relativistic Kantianism, and argues that one can take facts and propositions as relative without implying that our ordinary concept of truth is a relative, epistemic or "soft" concept.
Abstract: A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 1999 Academic debates about pluralism and truth have become increasingly polarized in recent years. One side embraces extreme relativism, deeming any talk of objective truth as philosophically naive. The opposition, frequently arguing that any sort of relativism leads to nihilism, insists on an objective notion of truth according to which there is only one true story of the world. Both sides agree that there is no middle path. In Truth in Context, Michael Lynch argues that there is a middle path, one where metaphysical pluralism is consistent with a robust realism about truth. Drawing on the work of Hilary Putnam, W.V.O. Quine, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, among others, Lynch develops an original version of metaphysical pluralism, which he calls relativistic Kantianism. He argues that one can take facts and propositions as relative without implying that our ordinary concept of truth is a relative, epistemic, or "soft" concept. The truths may be relative, but our concept of truth need not be.

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The history of the Peloponnesian War is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition as mentioned in this paper, and it is famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism.
Abstract: Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition. As an account of the Peloponnesian War, it is famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism. From the opening speeches, Thucydides' Athenians emerge as a new and frightening source of power, motivated by self-interest and oblivious to the rules and shared values under which the Greeks had operated for centuries. Gregory Crane demonstrates how Thucydides' history brilliantly analyzes both the power and the dramatic weaknesses of realist thought. The tragedy of Thucydides' history emerges from the ultimate failure of the Athenian project. The new morality of the imperialists proved as conflicted as the old; history shows that their values were unstable and self-destructive. Thucydides' history ends with the recounting of an intellectual stalemate that, a century later, motivated Plato's greatest work. Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity includes a thought-provoking discussion questioning currently held ideas of political realism and its limits. Crane's sophisticated claim for the continuing usefulness of the political examples of the classical past will appeal to anyone interested in the conflict between the exercise of political power and the preservation of human freedom and dignity.



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that each of the three kinds of "realisticness" as a property of theories is consistent with realism as a theory of theories, which does not yet make Coase an advocate of realism.
Abstract: Ronald Coase has been a vigorous critic of mainstream economic theory, arguing that it is unrealistic and that a good theory is realistic. The attributes "realistic" and "unrealistic" appear in three senses at least in Coase: one related to narrow ness and breadth; another related to abstracting from particularities (and the issue of "blackboard economics"); and the third related to correspondence with the legal. This does not yet make Coase an advocate of realism. It is therefore separately argued that each of the three kinds of "realisticness" as a property of theories is consistent with realism as a theory of theories.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the past few years, some of the most vigorous and interesting debates in international relations theory have emerged among different types of realism as discussed by the authors, and it has become clear that realism is not a single theory, but a family of theories.
Abstract: Real ism is usually regarded as a dominant-and monolithic-approach in the study of international relations. In the past few years, however, some of the most vigorous and interesting debates in international relations theory have emerged among different types of realism. It has become clear that realism is not a single theory, but a family of theories. One of the most significant divides within realism is between offensive realism and defensive realism.* Offensive realists generally argue that the international system fosters conflict and aggression. Security is scarce, making international competition and war likely. Rational states often are compelled to adopt offensive strategies in their search for security.2 Defensive realists, on the other hand, argue that the international system does not