INTRODUCTION: THE

PHISOLOSOPHICAL DEBATE
ON INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS.
Meta-Theory and the theoretical levels.

 Meta-theory: underlying level of theories. It is a “theory of theories”.

 Three levels:
 Ontology: knowledge about the “being”, the essense of the object to study.
 Epistemology. How to reach the knowledge about the “being”.
 Methodology. The tools to reach the knowledge.
 The further debates originated around the discipline of International Relations are based on these three
elements.
The four formative debates of the discipline.

 The first debate: idealism vs. Realism.

 The second debate: behaviourism.
 The third debate: interparadigm debate.
 Fourth debate:
 Explaining vs. Understanding.
 Positivism vs. Postpositivism.
 Realism vs. Reflectivism.