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In Heidegger's shadow: a phenomenological critique of Critical Realism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2012

Extract

The field of International Relations (IR) although in many quarters still immersed in the epistemological trenches surrounding the fourth debate between positivism and post-positivism saw the emergence of a renewed interest and debate about the state and rigour of ‘our’ ontological assumptions. One currently very prominent contribution to this emerging or re-emerging interest in ontological questions can be found in the Critical Realist (CR) approach.

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Copyright © British International Studies Association 2012

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References

1 See for instance Patomäki, Heikki and Wight, Colin, ‘After Post-Positivism? The Promise of Critical Realism’, International Studies Quarterly, 44 (2000), pp. 213–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wight, Colin, Agents, Structures and International Relations: Politics as Ontology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Ibid., p. 29.

3 See for instance Odysseos, Louiza, The Subject of Coexistence. Otherness in International Relations (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007)Google Scholar; Shapcott, Richard, Justice, Community, and Dialogue in International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dillon, Michael, Politics of Security. Towards a Political Philosophy of Continental Thought (London and New York: Routledge, 1996)Google Scholar.

4 The literature on Heidegger's position within the realism/anti-realism debate is vast. A variety of positions and treatments of the matter can be found in Glazebrook, Trish, Heidegger's Philosophy of Science (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Stepanich, Lambert V., ‘Heidegger: “Between Idealism and Realism”’, The Harvard Review of Philosophy (Spring 1991), pp. 20–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McManus, Denis, ‘Heidegger, Measurement and the “Intelligibility” of Science’, European Journal of Philosophy, 15:1 (2007), pp. 82105CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Glazebrook, Trish, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, Continental Philosophy Review, 34 (2001), pp. 361401CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dreyfus, Hubert L. and Spinosa, Charles, ‘Coping with Things-in-themselves: A Practice-Based Phenomenological Argument for Realism’, Inquiry, 42 (1999), pp. 4978CrossRefGoogle Scholar; or Malpas, Jeff, ‘The Fragility of Robust Realism: A Reply to Dreyfus and Spinosa’, Inquiry, 42 (1999), pp. 89101CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Stepanich, ‘Between Idealism and Realism’, p. 20.

6 Wendt, Alexander, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Alexander Wendt, Social Theory; Heikki Patomäki and Colin Wight, ‘The Promise of Critical Realism’; Colin Wight, Agents, Structures and International Relations; Kurki, Milja, ‘Causes of a divided discipline: rethinking the concept of cause in International Relations theory’, Review of International Studies, 32:2 (2006), pp. 189216CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wight, Colin, ‘Inside the epistemological cave all bets are off’, Journal of International Relations and Development, 10 (2007), pp. 4056CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wight, Colin, ‘A Manifesto for Scientific Realism in IR: Assuming the Can-Opener Won't Work!’, Millennium: Journal for International Studies, 35:2 (2007), pp. 379–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kurki, Milja, ‘Critical Realism and Causal Analysis in International Relations’, Millennium: Journal for International Studies, 35:2 (2007), pp. 361–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Joseph, Jonathan, ‘Philosophy in International Relations: A Scientific Realist Approach’, Millennium: Journal for International Studies, 35:2 (2007), pp. 345–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Ibid., p. 2.

9 Ibid., p. 28.

10 Wight, Agents, Structures and International Relations, p. 25.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., p. 2.

13 Ibid., p. 29.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid., p. 55.

16 Ibid., p. 29.

17 Ibid., p. 25, emphasis added.

18 Ibid., p. 29, emphasis added.

19 Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, trans. Stambaugh, Joan (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), p. 196, §212Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., p. 172, §183.

21 Ibid., p. 196, §212.

22 Ibid., p. 172, §183.

23 Stepanich, ‘Between Idealism and Realism’, p. 22.

24 Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 190, §205.

25 Ibid., p. 191, §206.

26 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 377; see also Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 188, § 202.

27 Stepanich, ‘Between Idealism and Realism’, p. 21.

28 Ibid.

29 McManus, ‘“Intelligibility” of Science’, pp. 82, 86.

30 Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 188, §202.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid., p. 192, §207.

33 Ibid., p. 196, §212.

34 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 368.

35 Ibid.

36 Wight, Agents, Structures and International Relations, p. 29.

37 Ibid.

38 On the problem of positing objects as objects see for instance McManus, ‘“Intelligibility” of Science’, p. 85.

39 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 375.

40 Ibid., p. 376.

41 Heidegger, Martin, ‘The Age of the World Picture’, in Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (New York: Harper, 1977), pp. 126–7Google Scholar.

42 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 382.

43 Heidegger, ‘The Age of the World Picture’, p. 118.

44 Ibid., emphasis added.

45 Ibid., pp. 127–9.

46 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 381.

47 Heidegger, ‘The Age of the World Picture’, p. 118.

48 Ibid.

49 This view of the nature of language can be described as ‘designative’ and traced back to philosophical influences from Hobbes to Locke and Condillac; see for instance Lawn, Chris, Wittgenstein and Gadamer. Towards a Post-Analytic Philosophy of Language (London and New York: Continuum, 2006), pp. 1417Google Scholar; and Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, ‘On the Phenomenology of Language’, in O'Neill, John (ed.), Phenomenology, Language and Sociology. Selected essays of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (London: Heinemann, 1974), p. 81Google Scholar. Charles Taylor famously contrasted this view with an ‘expressivist’ understanding of language in which language is the medium in which human existence is immersed and according to which it allocates meaning. Such a view can be traced back to Hamann, Herder and Humboldt and it can also be found in twentieth century philosophy, for instance in Heidgger, Gadamer and the later Wittgenstein. See for instance Taylor, Charles, ‘Language and Philosophy’, in Human Agency and Language. Philosophical Papers 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 215–47Google Scholar; and Chris Lawn, Wittgenstein and Gadamer, pp. 14–17.

50 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 371.

51 For such a view see for instance Kratochwil, Friedrich, Rules, Norms, and Decisions. On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kratochwil, Friedrich, ‘Of communities, gangs, historicity and the problem of Santa Claus: replies to my critics’, Journal of International Relations and Development, 10 (2007), p. 72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Fierke, Karin, Diplomatic Interventions. Conflict and Change in a Globalizing World (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Glazebrook, ‘Heidegger and Scientific Realism’, p. 388.

53 Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 196, §212.

54 Blattner, William, Heidegger's Being and Time. A Reader's Guide (London and New York: Continuum, 2006), p. 16Google Scholar.

55 Hubert Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World, p. 3.

56 Schmitt, Richard, Martin Heidegger on Being Human. An Introduction to Sein und Zeit (Lincoln: iUniverse.com, 2000), p. 166Google Scholar.

57 Haugeland, John, ‘Heidegger on Being a Person’, Nous, 16:1 (1982), p. 22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Richard Schmitt, Martin Heidegger on Being Human, p. 19.