Chapter Two: Evaluating Arguments about International Politics

Study

Chapter Summary

This chapter is an introduction to social science methods. One of the book's main points is that political science inquiry is increasingly being conducted in a scientific manner, with much attention given to research design. Although social scientists cannot do experiments easily in world politics, they can use an assortment of other techniques to investigate and explain patterns in events and behaviors. Principles argues that these investigations should be conducted with a goal of producing falsifiable, logically consistent theories that build on previous work to explain increasingly large parts of world politics.

Study Questions

• What is the difference between a theory, an assumption, and a hypothesis? What roles do assumptions and hypotheses play in a theory?
  
  

• Make up a theory that is not falsifiable (it doesn't have to be related to world politics). Why can't we test it? What would need to happen to your theory (or to the available evidence) to make it falsifiable?
  
  

• How is the first principle of wing-walking related to the scientific method as it is practiced in the natural sciences?