Author's Keywords: Critical Realism, Philosophy of Science, Instrumentalism, Neoclassical Economics	Convention All Academic Convention can solve the abstract management needs for any association's annual meeting. Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! Click here for more information.
Association: Name: International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention URL: http://www.isanet.org
Citation: URL: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180186_index.html Direct Link: HTML Code:

Rivas, Jorge. "Philosophy of Science and Scholarship in Political Economy: The Scientific Realist Critique of The Scientific Status of �The Economic Approach to Politics�" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA, Feb 28, 2007 <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180186_index.html>

Rivas, J. , 2007-02-28 "Philosophy of Science and Scholarship in Political Economy: The Scientific Realist Critique of The Scientific Status of �The Economic Approach to Politics�" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association 48th Annual Convention, Hilton Chicago, CHICAGO, IL, USA Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p180186_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Abstract: The growth in influence of the �economic approach to politics� within Political Science and International Relations is based on the conventionally accepted view that neoclassical economics is �the most scientific of the social sciences.� However, neoclassical economics have long been criticized for building and employing theories whose core components (assumptions, premises, postulates, axioms, etc) are readily accepted as unrealistic or false. The unrealistic nature of these central components has traditionally been defended through the deployment of instrumentalism, which itself is based in a positivist understanding of science. Drawing upon the scientific realist and critical realist critique of positivism, this paper constructs a realist critique of instrumentalism and its use in defending the scientific status neoclassical social theories. It will be shown that instrumentalism is not scientifically defensible from a realist point of view and that there has been considerable criticism of the continued use of instrumentalism to defend the practices of scholars who employ neoclassical economics as a scientific approach to social phenomena. Noting that these criticisms have not had a major impact on the practices of scholars employing the neoclassical approach, the paper turns to a critical realist explanation for this negligible impact, focusing on the larger social structures that help to generate and shape the production of �scientific� knowledge. The paper ends with a discussion of the relationship between the positivist notion of value-neutral/objective science and the role that scholars play in reinforcing and reproducing larger societal structures through the kinds of social theories they employ. The paper argues that the growing realist critique of the neoclassical approach should be taken more seriously within IR and Political Science.

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