Positivism and Normativism in the Theory of International Relations

Abstract

This text is a polemical contribution to the debate on positivism and
postpositivism in the study of international relations. It focuses on four
aspects rendering Loužek's defence of positivism rather flimsy: first, the
untenability of the positivism-normativism dichotomy. Second, a more
detailed analysis of theories incorrectly grouped with normativism. Third is
an analogous analysis of positivistic theories, and particularly their claims
to an epistemologically neutral access to reality, and fourth, we discuss
Loužek's ambivalent attitude to modernity, particularly to the notion of
progress.