Journal articles on the topic 'Realist theory'
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1
Leiter, Brian. "WHAT IS A REALIST THEORY OF LAW?" REI - REVISTA ESTUDOS INSTITUCIONAIS 6, no. 1 (April 23, 2020): 334–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.21783/rei.v6i1.454.
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This essay offers a programmatic statement for a realist theory of law. Although I have been influenced by (and written about) the work of earlier American, Scandinavian, Italian and other legal realists, this is not an essay about what others have thought. This is an essay about what I take realism about law to mean and what its theoretical commitments are; I shall use other realists to sometimes illustrate the distinctive positions of a realist theory of law, but will make clear where I depart from them. A realist theory of law involves both a “realist” and a “naturalistic” perspective on law. Let me explain how I understand these perspectives.
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Edyvane, Derek. "Who’s the realest?" European Journal of Political Theory 19, no. 2 (July 19, 2019): 281–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1474885119864679.
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The revival of interest in realism in political theory is comprehensively explored in Politics Recovered, a major new volume of 14 original essays edited by Matt Sleat. Wide-ranging and engaging throughout, the book takes in both supporters and critics of the realist turn and addresses neglected questions of the political application of realism and of the connection between contemporary political realism and the classical IR tradition of realist thought. But I argue that the book also prompts some troubling questions about the ultimate coherence of the realist orientation and about the way in which realists interpret the limits of political theory and of political theorists.
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Wendt, Fabian. "ON REALIST LEGITIMACY." Social Philosophy and Policy 32, no. 2 (2016): 227–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265052516000182.
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Abstract:In the last ten or fifteen years, realism has emerged as a distinct approach in political theory. Realists are skeptical about the merits of abstract theories of justice. They regard peace, order, and stability as the primary goals of politics. One of the more concrete aims of realists is to develop a realist perspective on legitimacy. I argue that realist accounts of legitimacy are unconvincing, because they do not solve what I call the “puzzle of legitimacy”: the puzzle of how some persons can have the right to rule over others, given that all persons are equals. I focus on the realist accounts of legitimacy developed by Bernard Williams and John Horton.
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Oren, Ido. "The Unrealism of Contemporary Realism: The Tension between Realist Theory and Realists' Practice." Perspectives on Politics 7, no. 2 (May 15, 2009): 283–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592709090823.
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Realist International Relations thinkers often intervene in political debates and criticize their governments' policies even as they pride themselves on theorizing politics as it “really” is. They rarely reflect on the following contradictions between their theory and their practice: if there is a “real world” impervious to political thought, why bother to try to influence it? And, is realist theory not putatively disconfirmed by the fact that realist thinkers have so often opposed existing foreign policies (e.g., the wars in Vietnam and Iraq)? I argue that these contradictions are not inherent in realism per se so much as in the commitment of contemporary realists to naturalistic methodological and epistemological postulates. I show that Hans Morgenthau and especially E. H. Carr, far from being naïve “traditionalists,” have grappled with these questions in a sophisticated manner; they have adopted non-naturalistic methodological and epistemological stances that minimize the tension between realist theory and the realities of realists' public activism. I conclude with a call for contemporary realists to adjust their theory to their practice by trading the dualism underlying their approach—subject-object; science-politics; purpose-analysis—for E. H. Carr's dictum that “political thought is itself a form of political action.”
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Gyulai, Attila. "The Lesson of Carl Schmitt’s Realism." Theoria 65, no. 155 (June 1, 2018): 26–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/th.2018.6515502.
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Political realism claims that politics should be understood as politics and not as a derivative of any other field of human activity. While contemporary realists often argue for the autonomy of politics, this article suggests that only the primacy of politics can be the starting point of political realism. The aim of the article is to expose a conceptual deficiency, namely, the unclear difference between the autonomy and the primacy approach in contemporary realist theory by going back to Carl Schmitt’s contribution to political realism. It will be argued that Schmitt’s concept of the political foreshadowed the ambiguities of contemporary realist theory, exemplified by key authors such as Bernard Williams, Raymond Geuss and Mark Philp.
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Ryu, Young-Hyeon. "The Question of Convention and Stereotype in George Eliot’s Realism: Focusing on Chapter 17 in Adam Bede." Criticism and Theory Society of Korea 28, no. 3 (October 31, 2023): 55–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.19116/theory.2023.28.3.55.
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This paper examines the issue of stereotypes and conventions as constitutive elements of the realist form, focusing on chapter 17 of Adam Bede, which is most often cited when discussing the realist aesthetic of 19th-century English writer George Eliot. The emphasis on stereotypes and conventions is centered on Eliot’s observation of the still life. I argue that Eliot’s fiction aims for moral truth rather than mechanical objectivity in its representations in order to elicit reader’s sympathy. As such, Eliot’s realism emphasizes empirical observation while simultaneously embracing idealism. In addressing the often-debated “question of objectivity in the aesthetic representation of reality” in realism, the focus then needs to be on the word “aesthetic” as much as on “objectivity,” and this paper argues that Eliot’s aesthetic achievement is not sufficiently free from the constraints of convention and stereotype.
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SCOTT, MICHAEL, and ANDREW MOORE. "CAN THEOLOGICAL REALISM BE REFUTED?" Religious Studies 33, no. 4 (December 1997): 401–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034412597004058.
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In a number of recent articles D. Z. Phillips has presented an exposition and defence of his views on theological realism, views which are based on his reading of Wittgenstein. Eschewing the label ‘anti-realist’ so often applied to his philosophy, Phillips claims that realists and anti-realists alike have ‘failed to appreciate how radical a challenge Wittgenstein makes to our philosophical assumptions’ (SL 22). Far from supporting non-realism above realism, Phillips – following Wittgenstein – wishes to upset the realist/non-realist debate by showing that the two theories offer equally confused accounts of belief and language, and specifically religious belief and language. If this claim could be substantiated it would, of course, be an extremely significant conclusion, and it is unfortunate that Phillips vacillates in his expression of it. Realism and non-realism are variously described as ‘empty’, ‘idle talk’ or like opposing ‘battle cries’ (RB 35), but despite being vacuous they are ‘not intelligible alternatives’ (RB 34) and ‘equally confused’ (RB 34). Furthermore, realism is ‘not coherently expressible’ (RB 45) and involves an ‘incoherent supposition’ (SL 23) and at least some forms of it can be ‘refuted’ (RR 194). In addition to their vacuity, unintelligibility and incoherence, both theories are also said to be guilty of a misguided reductionism (RB 47), and realists are charged with being ‘foundationalists’ who espouse a theory that ‘cannot take seriously the central religious conviction that God is at work in people's lives’ (RB 47).In this paper we will evaluate the arguments Phillips advances for rejecting realism and non-realism, and consider the sort of problems they might pose for realists. Phillips opposes the positions the realist and non-realist take on two crucial issues: first, whether religious practices and life are grounded in the belief that God is real, second, whether God may be considered to be an object. These are the two principal questions that occupy Phillips in his work on realism; it is in connection with the former that he puts forward his ‘refutation’ of realism. We aim to assess his arguments for their philosophical cogency and value.
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Brooks, Stephen G. "Dueling Realisms." International Organization 51, no. 3 (1997): 445–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/002081897550429.
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International relations scholars have tended to focus on realism's common features rather than exploring potential differences. Realists do share certain assumptions and are often treated as a group, but such a broad grouping obscures systematic divisions within realist theory. Recently, some analysts have argued that it is necessary to differentiate within realism. This article builds on this line of argument. The potential, and need, to divide realism on the basis of divergent assumptions has so far been overlooked. In this article I argue that realism can be split into two competing branches by revealing latent divisions regarding a series of assumptions about state behavior. The first branch is Kenneth Waltz's well-known neorealist theory; a second branch, termed here “postclassical realism,” has yet to be delineated as a major alternative but corresponds with a number of realist analyses that cohere with one another and are incompatible with Waltzian neorealism.
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Kegley, Charles W. "Neo-Idealism: A Practical Matter." Ethics & International Affairs 2 (March 1988): 173–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1988.tb00534.x.
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The classical realist world view places moral standards subservient to the power concerns of international actors. Realists did not make this valuation without some hesitation, as the issue of morality was addressed with seriousness and concern. The neo-realist thinking of today embraces with less hesitation the ultimate conclusion of the realist premises: statesmen never act according to moral precepts, thus such concerns need not be addressed by a political theory. Kegly argues the neo-idealist position that opposes this empirical observation: states consistently act according to values that are based on more than power concerns. Kegley's primary intent is to show that neo-realism ignores factors that influence international actors, and that a theory is needed that expands the notion of self-interest to include the moral sphere.
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Hwang, Hyeryung. "Revisiting the Realism/Modernism Debate: Marxist Thought and the Ethics of Representation." Criticism and Theory Society of Korea 29, no. 1 (February 29, 2024): 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.19116/theory.2024.29.1.293.
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In Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature (2005), Nicholas Brown remarks on the difference between realism and modernism as one that expresses a conflict between “a responsibility to historical truth” and “a fidelity to the formal energies released by the emergence of a form of subjectivity liberated (or alienated) from historical consciousness” (182). This raises several issues that might be useful for us to develop since, despite the emergence of diverse critical lines of thought since the development of postwar critical theory, realism and modernism have continued to affect the intricately interconnected modes of philosophical and political attitudes towards the relation between aesthetics and politics. Marxist thinkers, Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Fredric Jameson, among others, explored the dichotomy of realism and modernism in terms of the dialectic of form and content. While they shared that there is an essentially inextricable relationship between literature and the underlying contradictions of our society, how they described the aesthetic expression of social contradictions was distinct, leaving the important question unanswered: “what does it mean to be ‘real’?” In this paper, I revisit the realism-modernism debate to explore this fundamental antagonism to see how these thinkers help clarify the following issues: what is realist form, and what are its features? How does realism negotiate the history of aesthetic forms? Are “formal energies,” as Brown puts it, by themselves an attempt to be free of “historical consciousness” or ones that, as form, highlight historical consciousness? And finally, how does realist form make political action possible? These questions also help us see what it means that the aesthetic choices of an older realism have been persistently replicated after modernism in the global periphery.
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Soc, Andrija. "Deliberative democracy between moralism and realism." Filozofija i drustvo 27, no. 4 (2016): 920–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/fid1604920s.
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The topic of this paper is the debate between political moralists and political realists. I will try to show that it is possible to find the middle ground that simultaneously satisfies the main demands of both camps while resisting objections directed against each. In the first part, I start with the view shared by both moralists and realists: that the main challenge lying before a political theory is solving the problem of legitimacy. I first sketch Rawls? moralist approach. I then move to outline the realist criticisms of such moralism. I will mainly follow one of the most detailed recent theories - Sleat?s realist theory, although I will also draw from other well-known realists. In the second part, I outline objections against realism. They somewhat similar to the same criticisms they themselves direct against moralists. The main issue is, in short, the problem of underdetermination - that is, the insufficient determination of political action by facts. Since realists hold that a political theory has to be applicable, their view is thus considerably weakened by such criticism. In the third part of the paper, I point to deliberative theory as a view that can answer both realist criticism - because its main aspect is dealing with the way things work in actual politics of concrete societies - but it can also answer criticisms directed against realists themselves, because empirical research of deliberation suggests an actual and viable way to solve the problem of legitimacy - by raising the quality of deliberation. Moreover, a deliberative theory retains autonomy of the ethical, although it doesn?t do that, unlike moralism, by encroaching on the autonomy of politics. Thus, at the end of the paper, I claim that such a deliberative approach can be accepted by both realists and moralists.
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Walt, Stephen M. "The Progressive Power of Realism." American Political Science Review 91, no. 4 (December 1997): 931–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2952177.
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John Vasquez's assessment of realism suffers from three serious flaws. First, his reliance on Imre Lakatos's (1970) model of scientific progress is problematic, because the Lakatosian model has been largely rejected by contemporary historians and philosophers of science. Second, Vasquez understates the range and diversity of the realist research program and mistakenly sees disagreements among realists as evidence of theoretical degeneration. Finally, he overlooks the progressive character of contemporary realist theory, largely because he does not consider all the relevant literature. Disagreements within and across competing research programs are essential to progress and should be welcomed, but Vasquez's effort suggests that criticism will be most helpful when it seeks to do more than merely delegitimate a particular research tradition.
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Brinn, Gearóid. "Smashing the state gently: Radical realism and realist anarchism." European Journal of Political Theory 19, no. 2 (August 7, 2019): 206–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1474885119865975.
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The revival of realism in political theory has included efforts to challenge realism’s conservative reputation and argue that radical forms are possible. Nonetheless these efforts have been criticised as insufficient to overcome realism’s inherent conservatism. This article argues that radical forms of realism can be better appreciated by considering the application of the realist perspective within an existing radical ideology: anarchism. This may seem an unusual choice, considering anarchism’s standard representation as naïvely idealistic and paradigmatically non-realist. However, attention to the breadth of diversity in anarchist theory reveals a collection of positions that together represent a ‘realist anarchism’ which not only challenges anarchism’s reputation as uniformly committed to unrealistic and idealistic utopianism but also demonstrates the existence of genuinely radical forms of realism.
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Symons, Jonathan. "Realist climate ethics: Promoting climate ambition within the Classical Realist tradition." Review of International Studies 45, no. 1 (July 23, 2018): 141–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0260210518000189.
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AbstractWhat is a Classical Realist analysis of climate ethics and politics? Classical Realist ethical analysis differs from ideal normative theory in that it addresses state decision-makers rather than individuals, assumes highly imperfect compliance with the demands of justice, and is concerned with feasibility and transition rather than end-states. Classical Realists urge leaders to prioritise state security over private moral concerns, to assess rival policies against their likely consequences and to seek the ‘lesser evil’ among feasible choices. But how does Realism respond when the prudent pursuit of state security risks rendering much of the planet uninhabitable? In the 1950s, the development of the hydrogen bomb created just such a dilemma as status quo politics now carried a significant risk of thermonuclear omnicide. In response, Hans Morgenthau argued that states should manage systemic risk by working in concert to safeguard expanded, collective national interests. The Classical Realist mode of thought suggests an analogous response to systemic climate risks: states’ conceptions of national interest must expand to include cooperative system-preservation alongside traditional security concerns. Classical Realist arguments might then be mobilised to overcome resistance from vested interests and to support state-directed low carbon innovation, adaptation and mitigation agreements that prioritise ambition over distributional justice.
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Zardini, Elia. "Truth, Demonstration and Knowledge. A Classical Solution to the Paradox of Knowability." THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science 30, no. 3 (November 12, 2015): 365–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.14668.
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After introducing semantic anti-realism and the paradox of knowability, the paper offers a reconstruction of the anti-realist argument from the theory of understanding. The proposed reconstruction validates an unrestricted principle to the effect that truth requires the existence of a certain kind of “demonstration”. The paper shows that the principle fails to imply the problematic instances of the original unrestricted knowability principle but that the overall view still has unrestricted epistemic consequences. Appealing precisely to the paradox of knowability, the paper also argues, against BHK semantics, for the non-constructive character of the demonstrations envisaged by anti-realists, and contends that, in such a setting, one of the most natural arguments in favour of a revision of classical logic loses all its force.
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Hall, Edward. "How to do realistic political theory (and why you might want to)." European Journal of Political Theory 16, no. 3 (March 23, 2015): 283–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1474885115577820.
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In recent years, a number of realist thinkers have charged much contemporary political theory with being idealistic and moralistic. While the basic features of the realist counter-movement are reasonably well understood, realism is still considered a critical, primarily negative creed which fails to offer a positive, alternative way of thinking normatively about politics. Aiming to counteract this general perception, in this article I draw on Bernard Williams’s claims about how to construct a politically coherent conception of liberty from the non-political value of freedom. I do this because Williams’s argument provides an illuminating example of the distinctive nature of realist political thinking and its attractions. I argue that Williams’s account of realist political thinking challenges the orthodox moralist claim that normative political arguments must be guided by an ideal ethical theory. I then spell out the repercussions Williams’s claims about the significance of political opposition and non-moralised accounts of motivation have for our understanding of the role and purpose of political theory. I conclude by defending the realist claim that action-guiding political theory should accordingly take certain features of our politics as given, most centrally the reality of political opposition and the passions and experiences that motivate them. On this reading political realism offers a viable way of thinking about political values which cannot be understood in terms of the categories of intellectual separation – ideal/nonideal or fact-insensitive/fact-sensitive – that have marked political theory in recent years.
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Michaels, Eva. "Renewing Realist Constructivism: Does It Have Potential as a Theory of Foreign Policy?" Teoria Polityki 6 (October 19, 2022): 101–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.4467/25440845tp.22.006.16006.
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This article raises the possibility of de- and reconstructing realist constructivism for the purpose of studying foreign policy, with an emphasis on explaining and forecasting change and continuity. I discuss why Samuel Barkin’s explication of realist constructivism has in my view struggled to take off as an IR perspective and which tenets appear problematic, especially when applying them to foreign policy. I suggest a way of revitalising realist constructivism across three layers of theorising: political ontology, explanatory theory, and praxis. Constructivism’s “open ontology”offers a meeting point with classical realism, together with its (less deterministic and more interpretivist) explanatory approach. Classical realism adds to the third layer with its focus on practice sensibility, including the choices actors make in highly uncertain contexts. Its strong interest in discovering the truth of politics is important here. I argue that such a synthesis, which is informed by Ned Lebow’s conceptualisation of causation as “inefficient”, could be well-suited to unpack the complex reality of foreign policy. I seek to make the case for realist constructivism as a dynamic thinking tool, among others when investigating the effects of material, intersubjective and subjective factors on foreign policy decisions and outcomes. While my propositions can only be sketched here, the goal is to encourage further debate about the value of realist constructivism, which has ebbed since the mid-2000s.
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Pawson, Ray. "Middle-range realism." European Journal of Sociology 41, no. 2 (November 2000): 283–325. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003975600007050.
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This paper proposes a liaison —‘middle-range realism’—between two long standing explanatory strategies in sociology— ‘middle-range theory’ and ‘realist social theory’. Each offers what the other lacks. Middle-range theory carries an acute sense of the function of theory within empirical inquiry but has left undeveloped any notion of its appropriate explanatory form. Realist social theory has propositional precision but has been unable, in the most part, to descend from a critical domain to the empirical plane. Middlerange realism thus offers a research strategy of the appropriate form and scope to lead and to federate empirical inquiry. Examples are provided of how middle-range realism can be applied to improve research using two different strategies (survey methods and evaluation research) in two contrasting substantive areas (voting behaviour and offender rehabilitation).
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MATZ, AARON. "GE0RGE GISSING'S AMBIVALENT REALISM." Nineteenth-Century Literature 59, no. 2 (September 1, 2004): 212–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ncl.2004.59.2.212.
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In this essay I examine one author's peculiar struggle with the implications and expectations of realism in �ction. In late-Victorian England, George Gissing was at the epicenter of the debates about realism in the novel; for many of his contemporaries he was the archetypal writer of realist �ction. His novels seemed to rely on the grim detail and un�inching techniques associated with that school, and in his criticism he returned constantly to the question of "the place of realism in �ction" (the title of an essay he wrote in 1895). But Gissing never reached a stable verdict on the subject. In his masterpiece, New Grub Street (1891), one of his destitute writer-�gures is nicknamed "the Realist" and preaches "an absolute realism"; in the ruthless world of Gissing's modern Grub Street, the catchword is almost everywhere. What is so odd about the novel is how Gissing's portraits of aspiring realists vacillate between genuine sympathy and merciless satire. Sometimes Gissing seems to identify with those who subscribe to a platform of late-Victorian realism; at other times he appears to mock the whole ridiculous affair. New Grub Street effectively dramatizes Gissing's ambivalence about the workings and purposes of realism in the novel. In this essay I study his vexed attitude by considering New Grub Street in relation to Gissing's Augustan satirical precursors, the response to his �ction in the 1890s, and his own critical writings from the era, especially his extensive commentary on Charles Dickens.
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Sigwart, Hans-Jörg. "The Logic of Legitimacy: Ethics in Political Realism." Review of Politics 75, no. 3 (2013): 407–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034670513000338.
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AbstractThe article examines the recent debate on a genuinely realist perspective in political philosophy and argues that the core idea of realism is a certain type of ethical theory. In spite of the notorious polemic against “moralism” in politics that is characteristic of realist thinkers since Machiavelli, political realism as put forth in the current debate is not to be understood as a strictly fact-oriented perspective on politics, but rather as a perspective that itself is founded on a theory of political ethics. This peculiarly realist theory of political ethics can be characterized by its focus on the theoretical importance of political application problems, by a genuine priority principle underlying its understanding of political ethics, by its distinctive understanding of the concept of legitimacy and, finally, by its claim that any form of ethics, as far as it is concerned with political questions, is necessarily ambivalent in character.
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Spegele, Roger D. "Political Realism and the Remembrance of Relativism." Review of International Studies 21, no. 3 (July 1995): 211–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0260210500117668.
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With the precipitate and well-deserved demise of positivism as the only theory of knowledge backstopping international relations, a large number of ethical issues, emasculated by positivism's non-cognitivist views of morality, are emerging for philosophical reflection and analysis. One of the most important of these is relativism. Despite its obvious (and increasing) significance, however, few international theorists have specifically addressed the issues it raises. One of the main reasons for this neglect, this article argues, lies in the conspicuous failure on the part of the newer normative approaches to international relations even to acknowledge that a relativist interpretation is a plausible construal of their position. In the next section, three examples of such failure will be described. It is no accident that these examples derive from anti-realist positions. A perspicuous feature of anti-realism has been its evident incapacity to give sufficient weight to the fact that the world is divided into antagonistic groups which have serious, perhaps even irreconcilable, moral and political conflicts with one another. But whatever may be the case for anti-realists, revisionary political realism is in no position to obscure its relation to relativism. The possibility of relativism, for the revisionary political realist, arises from simple reflection on the realist tradition.
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Boardman, Frank. "Realism about Film and Realism in Films." Film and Philosophy 24 (2020): 43–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/filmphil2020244.
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Realism has a significant place in the history of film theory. The claim that film is essentially a realistic art form has been employed to justify the art-status of films as well as the distinctness of film as a form. André Bazin and others once used realist ontologies of film to try to establish realist teleologies and universal critical standards. I briefly sketch this history before considering the prospects for various versions of realism: Bazin’s, as well as Kendall Walton’s and Gregory Currie’s less ambitious but more plausible accounts. I argue that these theories, though they are the best cases we have for realism, are not adequate ontologies of film. However, while prior realist philosophers and critics were wrong to think that realism can provide a critical standard for all films, realism is nonetheless a praiseworthy filmic achievement - one that the opponent of ontological realism should not dismiss.
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Douglass, Robin. "Hobbes and political realism." European Journal of Political Theory 19, no. 2 (November 20, 2016): 250–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1474885116677481.
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Thomas Hobbes has recently been cast as one of the forefathers of political realism. This article evaluates his place in the realist tradition by focusing on three key themes: the priority of legitimacy over justice, the relation between ethics and politics, and the place of imagination in politics. The thread uniting these themes is the importance Hobbes placed on achieving a moral consensus around peaceful coexistence, a point which distances him from realists who view the two as competing goals of politics. The article maintains that only a qualified version of the autonomy of the political position can be attributed to Hobbes, while arguing more generally that attending to the relation between ethics and politics is central to assessing his liberal credentials from a realist perspective. Against the prevalent reading of Hobbes as a hypothetical contract theorist, the article proceeds to show that the place of consent in his theory is better understood as part of his wider goal of transforming the imagination of his audience: a goal which is animated by concerns that realists share.
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Patterson, Eric. "The Enduring Value of Christian Realism." Philosophia Reformata 80, no. 1 (May 26, 2015): 27–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/23528230-08001002.
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Christian realism is a “community of discourse” launched by Reinhold Niebuhr and his contemporaries that remains relevant today providing thoughtful perspective on contemporary policy challenges in the foreign policy analysis strand of the formal study of International Relations. The essay lays out some of the basic principles that unite Christian realists, considers whether or not it can be considered a strain of academic “International Relations Theory”, suggests areas for the growth of Christian realist discourse in applied political thinking today, and concludes with some differences between Niebuhrian and Kuyperian approaches.
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Rutherford, Nat. "Book Review: Political Theory: Liberal Realism: A Realist Theory of Liberal Politics." Political Studies Review 13, no. 1 (January 12, 2015): 96–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12073_16.
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Joseph, Jonathan, and Milja Kurki. "The limits of practice: why realism can complement IR’s practice turn." International Theory 10, no. 1 (December 6, 2017): 71–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s175297191700015x.
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This paper argues that the current calls for a practice turn in International Relations (IR) while positive in many respects, are problematic and potentially limiting because they are premised on a confused understanding of the role of philosophy and realist philosophy in particular and a restricted view of the role of sociological investigation. This arises from the problematic tendency to lapse into advocacy of an anti-realist philosophical and sociological imagination. We suggest that the problems that practice theorists point to should lead not to knee-jerk anti-realism but rather can motivate a reinvigorated conversation with realism. This entails revisiting the role of philosophy, realism, and sociology in the study of practices. We argue that far from being antithetical to practice theory, a reconsideration of realist philosophy helps make sense of the role of practice and provides those advocating practice theory with better tools to deal with the challenges which motivated the development of these theoretical stances. Reconsidering realism entails, however, a reconsideration of a wider social ontology within which practice takes place, and openness to the role of philosophical and theoretical abstractions in teasing out the role of practice.
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SHAFFER, GREGORY. "New Legal Realism's Rejoinder." Leiden Journal of International Law 28, no. 3 (July 30, 2015): 479–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0922156515000242.
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AbstractThis rejoinder responds to criticisms by Jan Klabbers and Ino Augsberg of ‘The New Legal Realist Approach to International Law’ (Leiden Journal of International Law, Volume 28:2, 2015). The New Legal Realism brings together empirical and pragmatic perspectives in order to build theory regarding how law obtains meaning, is practised, and changes over time. In contrast with conceptualists, such as Augsberg, legal realists do not accept the priority of concepts over facts, but rather stress the interaction of concepts with experience in shaping law's meaning and practice. Klabbers, as a legal positivist, questions the value of the turn to empirical work and asks whether it is a fad. This rejoinder contends that the New Legal Realism has deep jurisprudential roots in Europe and the United States, constituting a third stream of jurisprudence involving the development of sociolegal theory, in complement with, but not opposed to, analytic and normative theory.
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Moses, Jeremy. "Peace without perfection: The intersections of realist and pacifist thought." Cooperation and Conflict 53, no. 1 (September 8, 2017): 42–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010836717728539.
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It is common in international relations thought to view realism and pacifism as lying at opposite ends of a spectrum on the permissibility of war. Pacifism, from this point of view, is necessarily antithetically opposed to and incompatible with realist thinking on the use of force. This article aims to counter this view and raise some critical questions concerning the incompatibilities of realism and pacifism through an examination of some points at which they may be seen to intersect. In pursuing these intersections, the first part of the article sets out the foundations of classical realist thought, focusing on the inherently conflictual depiction of human nature as the basis for a theory that insists upon the inescapable possibility of political violence. It then departs from the conventional narrative by setting out the intersections of pacifist and realist thought concerning the illogical and dangerous attempts to moralise war-fighting through the application of just war theory. Finally, it is proposed that a synthesis of some elements of pacifist and realist thought could lead to the development of new theories and strategies attuned to the promotion of non-violence in an inherently unstable and conflict-prone world.
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Sleat, Matt. "Liberal Realism: A Liberal Response to the Realist Critique." Review of Politics 73, no. 3 (2011): 469–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034670511003457.
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AbstractIn recent years a powerful body of literature has emerged that challenges contemporary liberal thought on a series of related fronts, which can usefully be described as “realist.” This article focuses on the realist criticism of the dominant liberal account of legitimacy and explores the possibility of developing a political theory that can overcome this challenge while remaining distinctively liberal (hence “liberal realism”). Drawing on the work of a wide range of thinkers who fall outside of the standard Rawlsian tradition in contemporary liberal thinking, the article pursues three different directions in which a theory of liberal realism might be developed—negative, minimal, and partisan—and explores the advantages and shortcomings of each. It attempts to further demonstrate the salience and force of the realist challenge to liberal legitimacy and the need for liberalism to develop an adequate response to it, and offers some proposals concerning the appropriate theoretical framework for doing so.
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Fabbrizi, Valerio. "Normativism and realism within contemporary democratic constitutionalism." Philosophy & Social Criticism 44, no. 6 (April 15, 2018): 661–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0191453718768346.
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The renewed interest on political realism can offer a new reading of the traditional dichotomy between normative and realist conception of constitutionalism. The purpose of this article is to analyse this renewed discussion, especially by focusing on the relationship between “political realism” and “political constitutionalism,” in the light of some theorists and authors—such as Richard Bellamy and Jeremy Waldron. After a brief introduction in which political realism will be discussed, especially through Bernard Williams’ reinterpretation, the article proposes a rereading of democratic constitutionalism from the classical dichotomy between normativism and realism in political theory. The focus will be set on three key issues: 1. Richard Bellamy’s constitutional theory in a realist perspective; 2. An insight of legal constitutionalism under a normative banner; 3. A brief conclusion in which the risks of a majoritarian and populist constitutionalism will be discussed.
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Esitashvili, Nikoloz G., and Félix Martín. "NATO’s Internal Deepening, Endurance, and Expansion: Economic Incentives and Gains as an Explanatory Complement to Realist Alliance Theory." Journal of Strategic Security 13, no. 3 (October 2020): 17–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.13.3.1828.
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NATO endured the end of the Cold War in 1991, its members deepened their commitment to the alliance, and it expanded considerably. Its survival fundamentally challenges the logic of realism, prompting two essential questions. First, is it possible to salvage realist alliance theory in the face of its apparent failure to explain NATO's continuing operation? This article contends that realism is repairable and salvageable in this context. Second, if realism is still a viable argument about NATO's endurance, how can it explain it? This article adds a complementary and still-missing explanation to realism based on economic incentives and gains. It argues that economic considerations such as the high cost and complexity to research, design, develop, and produce cost-efficiently modern, sophisticated, and technically complex weapon systems represented a substantial financial undertaking for NATO's great power members. The unparalleled economic burden prompted allies to pull resources together instead of seeking security unilaterally or through other alignment alternatives. The economic imperative of the modern defense industry is an essential and overlooked variable among realist and non-realist perspectives. Economic incentives affected in unprecedented ways the strategic calculus of NATO's great powers and, thus, causes their increased commitment to the alliance, its endurance, and expansion.
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Young, James O. "Relatively Speaking: The Coherence of Anti-Realist Relativism." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 16, no. 3 (September 1986): 503–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00455091.1986.10717132.
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The current debate between realists and anti-realists has brought to the fore some ancient questions about the coherence of relativism. Realism is the doctrine according to which the truth of sentences is determined by the way things really are. Truth is thus the result of a relation between sentences and reality. One species of anti-realism holds, on the contrary, the truth results from a relation between sentences within a theory: a sentence is true if warranted by a correct theory.
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Hsu, Sophia. "Slum Realism and the Politics of Aesthetics in Walter Besant's All Sorts and Conditions of Men." SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 61, no. 4 (September 2021): 667–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sel.2021.a910834.
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Abstract: By critiquing how realism usually depicts the slums, Walter Besant's All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) makes room for an alternative mode of perceiving slums and slum dwellers. This mode, I argue, fuses realism and utopianism, as it revises realist images of the working class as bleak and monotonous to represent this demographic as happy, pleasurable, and life-affirming. This article departs from previous scholarship that tends to read Besant's aesthetic hybridity as a failure of realism or overly idealistic politics. In upending realist expectations about the slums, the novel challenges what has been deemed politically possible, thereby demonstrating the inextricability of politics and aesthetics.
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Guastini, Riccardo. "Legal Realism as a Positivistic Theory of Law." Isonomía - Revista de teoría y filosofía del derecho, no. 53 (October 31, 2020): 127–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.5347/isonomia.v0i53.452.
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Since the Sixties, following Norberto Bobbio, everyone is (or should be) used to distinguish among methodological, theoretical, and ideological legal positivism (LP). By the way, in Italian legal-philosophical literature, LP is often opposed to legal realism (LR). One has to wonder, however: what kind of LP and what kind of LR are we talking about? (i) As to LR, those scholars who oppose realism and positivism have in mind most of all Scandinavian Realism, especially Olivecrona and Ross. (ii) As to LP, those scholars who oppose realism and positivism have in mind either the 19th century prevailing theory of law or Kelsen’s pure theory. The opposition between LR and the pure theory is sound. Nonetheless, such an opposition does not arise from a supposed anti-positivistic stance of LR. It depends on two non-positivistic theses endorsed by Kelsen: the concept of validity as binding force, and the normative theory of legal science, conceived of a set of deontic (non-factual) sentences echoing valid (i.e., binding) norms. The opposition between LR and 19th century LP is equally sound, but does not hold when referred to contemporary LP, which is mainly conceived of as a methodological (Benthamite) attitude towards the law. LR is an openly positivistic view about the law. To be sure, not all positivist legal scholars are realist, but all realists are (“hard”) positivists.
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Xue, Jin. "A critical realist theory of ideology: Promoting planning as a vanguard of societal transformation." Planning Theory 21, no. 2 (February 22, 2022): 109–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14730952211073330.
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This article explores the potential values of a critical realist theory of ideology on the analysis of planning issues. In particular, it argues its usefulness in promoting planning as a vanguard of societal transformation. The critical realist theory of ideology revitalizes the epistemological inquiry of beliefs, which enables an evaluation of the social, economic and environmental impacts of the ideas and beliefs embedded in planning. Furthermore, the essence of critical realist theory of ideology is to explain the (re)production of the ideology, which paves the way for transformative planning, as transformation cannot be realized without eliminating constraining social conditions. Finally, critical realism situates its critique of ideology within the wider transformation process by rendering visible the dimensions that can contribute to eradicating the ideology in question, and shaping better planning ideas, including ethical reasoning, utopia thinking and transformative agency. A meta-theoretical framework based on critical realism is proposed to guide a critique of ideology in planning. By using an example of planning for sustainable urban development in Copenhagen and Oslo, the paper demonstrates the ways in which the meta-theoretical framework can be applied to planning in a quest for societal transformation.
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Araujo Neto, Gerson Albuquerque de. "A questão do realismo na filosofia de Karl Popper/The question of realism in Karl Popper's philosophy." Pensando - Revista de Filosofia 5, no. 10 (December 28, 2014): 29. http://dx.doi.org/10.26694/pensando.v5i10.3041.
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O presente texto é um estudo do problema do realismo na filsofia da ciência de Karl Popper. O texto inicia com a definição de realismo e a sua importância na filosofia atual. Mostra, também, em que textos Popper trabalha a questão do realismo e onde, no seu texto autobiográfico, ele se assume como realista. Analisa, ainda, o realismo na teoria dos três mundos de Popper.Abstract: The present essay is an study about the problem of realism in Karl Popper's philosophy of science. The essay begins with the definition of realism and its importance in nowadays philosophy. It also shows in which texts Popper works the question of realism and where, in his autobiographical text, he assumes himself as a realist. The essay also analises the realism in Popper's Three Worlds Theory. Key words: Realism. Karl Popper. Philosophy of Science.
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Szűcs, Zoltán Gábor. "Aristotle’s realist regime theory." European Journal of Political Theory 19, no. 2 (October 23, 2018): 228–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1474885118806087.
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The ambition of this article is threefold. First, it is to offer a realist reading of Aristotle’s regime theory as it is laid out mostly in Books IV–VI of his Politics. The author argues that Aristotle’s regime theory has three fundamentally realist claims about the workings of politics: first, the search for a perfect regime is not the only legitimate subject of political theory; second, every regime is built on a delicate balance of a particular understanding of political justice, a variety of sociological factors and the institutional design and political virtues of its politicians; third, there are almost as many different regimes as polities, and although they can be grouped into major regime types, there are many sub-types and mixed and transitory regimes. Second, the article argues that modern democratic theories have an unacceptable ‘moralistic bias’ from a realist point of view. Third, that a neo-Aristotelian regime theory can offer an attractive realist alternative to the predominant contemporary understandings of political regimes.
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BEHR, HARTMUT, and AMELIA HEATH. "Misreading in IR theory and ideology critique: Morgenthau, Waltz and neo-realism." Review of International Studies 35, no. 2 (April 2009): 327–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0260210509008547.
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AbstractThis article is interested in the hegemony which neo-realism accomplished during the second half of the 20th century in both the academic field and policy making of I/international R/relations. Our examination posits the argument that neo-realism can be seen as an ideology rather than a theory of international politics. While this view can connect to individual voices from the 1960s as well as to an emerging body of critical literature since the 1990s, we propose an ideology critique to explore this argument. To unfold this approach we will elaborate some neo-realist misreadings which we think manipulate intellectual history (among others, the writings of Hans J. Morgenthau) and represent an ideological impact intrinsic in the development of IR. An ideology critical approach – which is inherent in Morgenthau's thoughts on international theory themselves and thus helps to reveal profound discrepancies at the heart of an ostensible ‘realist’-neo-realist ‘unity’ – has, firstly, to problematise those discrepancies and, secondly, to focus on hegemonic strategies applied to ideologise and mainstream the academic field. The first part of such an agenda is what we present here; the second part is what we outline methodologically and suggest for further studies in, and of, IR.
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Raekstad, Paul. "Realism, Utopianism and Human Rights." Political Studies Review 18, no. 4 (August 30, 2019): 542–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1478929919868596.
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In a recent article, Benjamin McKean defends utopian political theorising by means of an internal critique of realism, construed as essentially anti-utopian, in order to defend human rights against realist objections thereto. I challenge that argument in three steps, focusing on the realism of Raymond Geuss. First, I show that the realism of Raymond Geuss is not incompatible with utopianism, that Geuss never opposes realism to utopianism and that he frequently argues that political theory should be both more realistic and more utopian. Second, I show that McKean misconstrues Geuss’ opposition to human rights as anti-utopian. Neither Geuss’ opposition to ethics-first political theory nor his objections to human rights can accurately be explicated in terms of McKean’s ‘utopianism’. Finally, I show how this misconstruing of Geuss’ realism renders McKean’s critique of Geuss ineffective, as a result of which his defence of human rights against Geuss’ realist objections fails. I conclude with some reflections on the importance of this for methodological debates in political theory, the value of realistically utopian theorising and the ideological power of contemporary ethics-first approaches to political theory.
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Pan, Licheng. "The Development and Prospect of Neoliberalism International Relations Theory." Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences 1 (July 6, 2022): 266–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v1i.671.
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Neoliberalism international relations theory occupies a great position in current international relations research and is one of the three existing international relations paradigms.Through a retrospective study on the mainstream branches of neoliberalism international relations theory, this paper summarizes the research starting points, main arguments, and shortcomings of the major schools of neoliberalism international relations theory, and sorts out the development and inheritance relationship between the major theories, comparing the similarities and differences between international theory under the neoliberalism school and other schools such as realist international relations theory. Through the method of literature review, the journals and monographs that are of great significance to various schools of neoliberalism are reviewed. The establishment of neoliberalism international relations theory has gone through a complex process, it is inherited from the traditional liberalism paradigm and has undergone considerable development in the second half of the 20th century. The formulation of neoliberalism international relations theory is a process of compromise between traditional liberal international relations theory and realism. It accepts many theoretical starting points and assumptions from realism and is also influenced by other disciplines such as economics. On this basis, several important branches have been developed. They are related to each other and share many ideological origins and basic assumptions.There is an obvious relationship of inheritance, development and iteration among different branch of theories. Although neoliberalism international relations theory has not completely replaced realist international relations theory, its proposal is still of epoch-making significance as it provides a new perspective to examine international politics and make up for the deficiencies of realist international relations theory.
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Fiammenghi, Davide. "The Security Curve and the Structure of International Politics: A Neorealist Synthesis." International Security 35, no. 4 (April 2011): 126–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00037.
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Realist scholars have long debated the question of how much power states need to feel secure. Offensive realists claim that states should constantly seek to increase their power. Defensive realists argue that accumulating too much power can be self-defeating. Proponents of hegemonic stability theory contend that the accumulation of capabilities in one state can exert a stabilizing effect on the system. The three schools describe different points along the power continuum. When a state is weak, accumulating power increases its security. This is approximately the situation described by offensive realists. A state that continues to accumulate capabilities will eventually trigger a balancing reaction that puts its security at risk. This scenario accords with defensive realist assumptions. Finally, when the state becomes too powerful to balance, its opponents bandwagon with it, and the state's security begins to increase again. This is the situation described by hegemonic stability theory. These three stages delineate a modified parabolic relationship between power and security. As a state moves along the power continuum, its security increases up to a point, then decreases, and finally increases again. This modified parabolic relationship allows scholars to synthesize previous realist theories into a single framework.
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Jubb, Robert. "On What a Distinctively Political Normativity Is." Political Studies Review 17, no. 4 (April 5, 2019): 360–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1478929919832251.
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Realists in normative political theory aim to defend the importance of ‘distinctively political thought’ as opposed to the applied ethics they believe characterizes much contemporary political theory and causes it to misunderstand and make mistakes about its subject matter. More conventional political theorists have attempted to respond to realism, including Jonathan Leader Maynard and Alex Worsnip, who have recently criticized five supposedly realist arguments for a distinctive political normativity. However, while Leader Maynard and Worsnip’s arguments are themselves less decisive than they suppose, the problem with their response may lay elsewhere. Their response supposes that more conventional political theory could, in principle, be defended at an abstract general level. This may not be possible though, given the difficulty of arriving at agreed interpretations of the concepts involved and the desiderata for a successful normative political theory. It also risks missing the point of realism, which is to use different forms of normative inquiry to explore questions which have not always been central to conventional normative political theory. Judith Shklar’s excellent work on vices and the liberalism of fear nicely illustrates this problem.
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Myers, Robert J. "Hans Morgenthau's Realism and American Foreign Policy." Ethics & International Affairs 11 (March 1997): 253–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1997.tb00031.x.
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As the father of the realist theory of international relations, Hans Morgenthau consistently argued that international politics is governed by the competitive and conflictual nature of humankind. Myers discusses the history of U.S. foreign policy and the ongoing debate over the continued relevance of realist thought in the post-Cold War era. He argues that despite vast changes in the international system, realism remains relevant as an accurate description of human nature and hence of the interactions among nations. Analyzing Morgenthau's Politics Among Nations, Myers provides a point-by-point discussion of his theory. He concludes by stating that the relevance of realism will be seen particularly in the search for a new balance of power in the post-Cold War world.
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Silva, Bruno Malavolta e. "Realismo Científico e Incomensurabilidade Metodológica: Autonomia Epistêmica Como Parte da Racionalidade Científica." Analytica - Revista de Filosofia 25, no. 1 (May 23, 2023): 99–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.35920/1414-3004.2021v25n1p99-124.
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ResumoO argumento do milagre afirma que o realismo científico é a melhor explicação para o sucesso da ciência:teorias científicas são bem-sucedidas porque são verdadeiras, e cientistas são bem-sucedidos em encontrarteorias verdadeiras porque se baseiam em normas metodológicas confiáveis. A tese da incomensurabilidademetodológica afirma que teorias científicas não são escolhidas através de um algoritmo neutro de normas epistêmicas. Isso revela uma lacuna na explicação realista: normas epistêmicas confiáveis não são suficientes para conduzir a escolhas de teorias verdadeiras, pois tais escolhas também são determinadas por outros fatores além de normas epistêmicas. A introdução de fatores adicionais como subdeterminando a escolha de teorias engendrou argumentos relativistas e antirrealistas contra o realismo. A explicação realista pode ser reabilitada se postular que os cientistas possuem autoridade epistêmica para aprimorar as normas metodológicas da ciência, sendo aptos a tomar decisões autônomas em vez de regidas por regras.AbstractThe no miracles argument claims that scientific realism is the best explanation to science’s success: scientifictheories are empirically successful because they are truthlike, and scientists are successful in theory-choices because they rely on reliable methodological norms. The methodological incommensurability thesis claims that there is no neutral algorithm for theory-choice. It reveals a gap in the realist explanation: reliable epistemic norms are not sufficient to guarantee successful theory-choices, because theory- choices are also determined by other factors besides epistemic norms. The introduction of additional factors as underdetermining theory-choices motivates relativist and antirealist positions. But the realist explanation can be rehabilitated if it postulates that scientists have epistemic authority to develop methodological norms, being apt to take decisions which are autonomous rather than rule-driven.
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Jász, Borbála. "Hidden Modernism: Architecture Theory of the Socialist Realist Gap." Periodica Polytechnica Architecture 49, no. 1 (May 28, 2018): 92–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.3311/ppar.12168.
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The aim of this paper is to clarify and exemplify the difference between modern, socialist realism and late modern in architecture. In the general pre-theoretical use of these terms, this distinction is often blurred; a unified expression, socialist realism, is used for all the aforementioned terms. This paper will examine a possible answer for this phenomenon by using examples from different areas of eastern-Central Europe, especially from Hungarian architecture.The paper first focuses on the façadism of socialist realism in the architecture of eastern-Central Europe. Following this, it shows that the architectural tendencies of classical modernism did not disappear in this period; they were just not explicitly manifest in case of public buildings for example. Finally, the paper argues that after this socialist realist gap, architectural theory and planning tendencies of the interwar period returned and continued, especially the work of Le Corbusier.
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Luke, Timothy W. "Caught between vulgar and effete realists: Critical theory, classical realism and mythographies of power." Journal of International Political Theory 13, no. 1 (October 26, 2016): 18–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1755088216673078.
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This study explores conceptual conflicts embedded in the thematic grounding of classical realism. To establish conditions of consistent normality in human political behaviour for realist analysis, the rhetoric of originary political wisdom usually ties its claims, as a research framework, to myth and enlightenment. Because Thucydides, Machiavelli or Hobbes articulated the premises of political realist analysis in the contexts of state formation, anarchic regional politics and perpetual war, these first figures of political authority seem to have set terms of geopolitical analysis that erase context, arrest temporality and homogenise space by pointing analysis back to classical events, thinkers and struggles in mythic terms. Critical theorists ask if such mythic styles of reasoning are a credible approach, even though many accept such modes of analysis. Consequently, this study explores how myth affects political realist studies to question how statecraft perpetuates itself on reason, myth and their contradictions.
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Karčić, Hamza. "American Realists and the War in Bosnia 1992-1995." Historijski pogledi 6, no. 10 (November 15, 2023): 356–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.52259/historijskipogledi.2023.6.10.356.
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While there is a significant body of literature on U.S. policy towards Bosnia in the early 1990s, the role and policy recommendations of American realists have been largely overlooked. Realism is a school of thought in international relations which holds that states are the key actors motivated by interests which seek to maximize their power and security in an anarchic world. Adherents of this worldview emphasize the pursuit of national interests and the importance of power and force in achieving it. Realists are generally opposed to military interventions where a vital national interest is not at stake. The purpose of this article is to fill this gap by analysing both realist policymakers and academics and how they responded to the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. Several top officials of the George H. W. Bush Administration including the President, Secretary of State James Baker and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft were realists and this worldview shaped the US response to the outbreak of the war in Bosnia. Focused on a host of other foreign policy issues at the time, the Bush Administration was adamant not to get involved militarily in Bosnia. James Baker’s statement „We don't have a dog in that fight“ came to define the Bush Administration's Bosnia policy. Its realist outlook combined with the presidential campaign priorities in 1992 to ensure that the Western response to the war in Bosnia was handed over to the Europeans. With realist policymakers in power from the outbreak of the war in spring 1992 through early 1993, many Bosnians hoping for a Western military intervention at the time would later come to realise how far-fetched those hopes were. In addition to realist policymakers, several prominent realists in the American academia also weighed in on how the US should respond to the war in this part of Southeast Europe in the early 1990s. Academic realists published their opinions and recommended policy options in leading media outlets throughout the three-and-a-half year war. Though their worldview was not shared by the first Bill Clinton Administration, academic realists continued offering policy recommendations on Bosnia. Academic realists like Robert Pape and Michael Desch opposed the use of air power in Bosnia arguing that it would be ineffective. John Mearsheimer together with Pape called for partition of Bosnia and establishment of homogeneous states in the Balkans and arming of Bosnian Muslims. Kissinger was opposed to a military commitment to Bosnia but did not lay out specific policy recommendations. In sum, both policymakers and academics argued that there was no vital US national interest at stake in Bosnia warranting deployment of ground troops. Even after the Dayton peace talks concluded in late 1995, American realists continued weighing in on Bosnia and offering generally bleak assessments. While the majority of those recommended policy options were not implemented, realists’ views on Bosnia in the 1990s still deserve scholarly attention. Studying American realists provides an overview of how both practitioners and intellectual adherents of a key theory in international relations perceived the war and its outcome. This analysis will also provide a more nuanced understanding of the variety of American responses to the war in Bosnia.
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Zuidervaart, Lambert. "HOW NOT TO BE AN ANTI-REALIST: HABERMAS, TRUTH, AND JUSTIFICATION." Philosophia Reformata 77, no. 1 (November 27, 2012): 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22116117-90000520.
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This article responds to a debate in analytic philosophy between realist and antirealist conceptions of truth, as formulated by Alvin Plantinga. Whereas Plantinga recommends a return to Aquinas, I argue for a new understanding of propositional truth that grows out of Jürgen Habermas’s “pragmatic realist” conception. By critically appropriating Habermas’s insights, I aim to move beyond the realism/anti-realism dispute, replacing questions of independence with questions of interdependence. I claim that truth theory needs to begin with the interdependence of “mind” and “object” and with the corporeal multidimensionality of both human knowers and that about which they acquire knowledge.
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Campbell, Peter. "Military Realism and Doctrinal Innovation in Kennedy's Army: A New Perspective on Military Innovation." Journal of Global Security Studies 5, no. 4 (February 11, 2020): 675–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogz067.
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Abstract This article introduces a new theory of military innovation, military realism, which argues that senior military leaders spearhead major changes in military doctrine when existing doctrinal mission priorities and theories of victory do not address the most dangerous threats. What I call the military realist perspective drives this doctrinal innovation. Through a case study of change and continuity in US Army doctrine under President Kennedy, this article challenges bureaucratic, military cultural, and civilian realist theories of military innovation. Military realism provides a powerful explanation of a hard case, while the other theories struggle with what should be an easy case.
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Aldama, Frederick Luis. "Structural Configuration of Magic Realism in the Works of Gabriel García Márquez, Leslie Marmon Silko, Charles Johnson, and Julie Dash." Journal of Narrative and Life History 5, no. 2 (January 1, 1995): 147–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.5.2.03str.
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Abstract This article raises the question of how contemporary multicultural authors and film directors build upon the magic-realist convention, with its specific narra-tive-discourse configurations (the way the story is told) to allow their audience access to foreign, often bizarre worlds. The first section of the analysis deals with understanding the precise structural configurations that make a text work as magic realism and explores variations that complicate the schemata. The second section relies on the first section's discussion of magic-realist codes to look closely at Julie Dash's film Daughters of the Dust , a text type that utilizes its visual and auditory tracks to work as magic realism. (Magic Realism; Visual and Literary Theory; Multicultural Images)