Flashcards on International Relations as Science
International Relations as Science: Key Concepts & Positivism
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Reductionism
28 cards
Card 1
Question: What does reductionism generally mean in the context of science and thought?
Answer: The assumption that complex phenomena, theories, or things can be explained or derived from their parts or most basic elements (e.g., elementary proto
Card 2
Question: According to the text, what is the relationship between reductionism and positivist science?
Answer: Reductionism is at the core of positivist science; its ontological, methodological, and epistemological assumptions reflect a reductionist way of thin
Card 3
Question: What does the term “reducible to” mean in the provided text?
Answer: It usually refers to explanation and methodology — meaning that the explanation of the whole can be achieved by studying its parts.
Card 4
Question: What counter-concept to reductionism does the text present, and what does it mean?
Answer: Emergence — a case where a system possesses properties that are not reducible to the properties of its parts; these macro-properties arise from the in
Card 5
Question: How does the text explain the concept of emergent properties using the example of systems theory?
Answer: In hierarchically structured systems, properties emerge at the macro-level that do not exist at the micro-level; they arise from the interactions of e
Card 6
Question: According to the text, what is methodological holism?
Answer: An approach that argues that explaining the whole requires a different methodology than studying its individual parts — because some properties of the
Card 7
Question: How is Ockham's Razor related to reductionism?
Answer: Ockham's Razor (the principle of parsimony) is an example of broader reductionism: it favors explanations with the fewest hypotheses and variables, th
Card 8
Question: According to the text, how do Aristotle's and Ockham's views on simplicity differ?
Answer: Aristotle's view was ontological (nature chooses the simplest path), whereas for Ockham, simplicity became an epistemological principle — to eliminate
Card 9
Question: According to the text, who expanded the principle of parsimony in the 19th century, and when?
Answer: The principle was expanded in the 19th century primarily by John Stuart Mill and was later also called “economy of thought” (Denkökonomie), a term pos
Card 10
Question: What ontological claim of positivist science does the text mention in relation to reductionism?
Answer: Positivist science holds a material, atomistic/particularistic/individualistic ontological stance — the world is a world of observable particulars; un