Exercise 1

Positivist or Post-positivist?

1. ‘Particular thoughts, concepts and theories are just that: different theoretical responses or approaches to the social totality of which they themselves are constituent aspects’ (Resnick and Wolff, 2006: 18). [Solution 1]

2. ‘A major aim of science, even social science, is to provide us with a common set of epistemological tools, in a discipline, for ascertaining the nature of reality and therefore testing the adequacy of our theories” (Keohane, 1989: 250). [Solution 2]

3. ‘A theory of international relations needs to perform four principal tasks. It should describe, explain, predict, and prescribe’ (Kegley, 1995: 8). [Solution 3]

4. ‘It is the way capitalism has been “thought” that has made it so difficult for people to imagine its supersession’ (Gibson-Graham, 1996/2006: 4). [Solution 4]

5. ‘Theory becomes possible only if various objects and processes, movements and events, acts and interactions are viewed as forming a domain that can be studied in its own right” (Waltz, 1995: 69). [Solution 5]

6. ‘Theory is always for someone and for some purpose’ (Cox, 1981: 128). [Solution 6]