TITLE:
On the Ontology of Structural Realism
AUTHORS:
Markus Fischer
KEYWORDS:
Structural Realism, Neorealism, Methodological Holism, Ontological Individualism, State Formation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
15,
2019
ABSTRACT: Due to
its systemic approach, structural realism (or neorealism) can be subsumed under
methodological holism, which takes social phenomena to be wholes that cannot be
reduced to their parts. The wholes posited by structural realism are the state
and the international structure. Recent developments in the philosophy of
social science suggest that methodological holism ought to be limited to causal
explanation and complemented by ontological individualism, which requires an
account of how social wholes derive from individuals. Structural realism lacks
such an account because it takes the state as an empirical given, mistaking for
a fact what is really a concept in need of deductive derivation from individuals.
To bring the theory methodologically up to date, this essay undertakes such a
derivation of the state from individuals, proceeding in the deductive manner of
political theory. It thus provides structural realism with a methodologically
valid ontology, which, in turn, enables the theory to better defend itself
against liberal and constructivist critics who reduce the state to a transient
phenomenon.