Download This PaperA Summary of Neopositivism and Analyticism From Patrick Jackson’s ‘The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations’
13 Pages Posted: 2 Oct 2020
Date Written: May 1, 2019
Abstract
The differences and similarities between neopositivism/positivism and the analyticism/constructivism are deep rooted in their ”diagnosis” of a single ”problem” regarding how to produce scientific knowledge. Neo-positivists on the one hand, ground scientific knowledge in secure empirical observations, guaranteeing a high degree of certainty in the form of falsifiable general law-like claims, capable of ”curing” their ”Cartesian anxiety”. Analyticists on the other hand, perform a completely different ”diagnosis” of the same ”problem”, by rubbishing the ”Cartesian anxiety” and rather grounding knowledge in the social interaction and practices of people, thus, creating ”ideal-types” based on value commitments and empirical observations, which are capable of discovering case specific causal relationships. Their overarching similarity however, is their strong reliance on only empirical facts that do not transcend the ability of the sensory organs to experience or observe.
Keywords: Neopositivism, Analyticism
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