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4 - Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Colin Wight
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Summary

In this and the following chapter I intend to examine the various ontological issues raised in the agent–structure problem. Put simply, the ontological problems concern the nature of both agents and structures, and, since I argue they are mutually implicated, their interrelationship. My decision to deal with the ontological issues in advance of the epistemological and methodological questions reflects the scientific realist belief that the ontological questions are of a more fundamental nature than those of epistemology and/or methodology. These latter issues, however, are not to be relegated to a second-order significance. All substantive ontological claims require epistemological justification. Likewise, the delineation of a complex social ontology will imply various methodologies apropos its study. Thus, and to reiterate, ontological issues take analytical priority only because any discussion of epistemology and methodology in an ontological vacuum would be arbitrary.

For scientific realists, and contrary to positivists, theoretical terms may, and often do, refer to real entities. Thus, for any realist approach the importance of developing theoretical accounts that capture some sense of the objects they purport to describe is pivotal. But scientific realism is not ontologically dogmatic. It combines a robust depth realism with an equally robust epistemological relativism about existential claims made within a particular science. To be a realist in this sense is to take ontological commitments seriously, and to postulate theoretical entities with extreme caution; and importantly, to accept the need to defend them on ontological and not simply methodological, or pragmatic/instrumentalist, grounds.

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Chapter
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Agents, Structures and International Relations
Politics as Ontology
, pp. 121 - 176
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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  • Structure
  • Colin Wight, University of Sheffield
  • Book: Agents, Structures and International Relations
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491764.005
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  • Structure
  • Colin Wight, University of Sheffield
  • Book: Agents, Structures and International Relations
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491764.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Structure
  • Colin Wight, University of Sheffield
  • Book: Agents, Structures and International Relations
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491764.005
Available formats
×