ULUSLARARASI İLİŞKİLER TEORİLERİ I - Deneme Sınavı - 7

There are three theories of knowledge or three epistemologies for scientific knowledge: empricism, rationalism and pragmatism.

Positivism is distinguished by four important assumptions. First of these is the belief about the uniqueness of science. According to this assumption which is called as naturalism in philosophical language, there is no important difference between natural world and social world and through the methodology of natural science, social world can be analyzed. Second assumption is that there should be a distinction between facts and values. In terms of philosophy, this point of view which is known as objective position assumes that objective knowledge can be attained by scientific methods despite the existence of subjective factors influencing the research. Third assumption is based on the belief that as in the universe or natural world, there are also regularities in the social world. In this way, as research is carried out, either deductive or inductive methods are employed. According to the final assumption, research must be based on the methods of empirical verification or falsification. According to pragmatism, our beliefs influence our actions directly and orientate them to a certain way.

Thomas Kuhn and Richard Rorty, contemporary representatives of pragmatism, also point out that a paradigm can only be valid as long as it can solve the problem.

In general context, Jean-François Lyotard, Roland Barthes, Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze, Luce Irigaray, Paul Feyerabend, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Richard Rorty are among the writers that made valuable contributions to post-modernism.

John Locke's philosophy on individual freedom and state’s limited role can be best seen in his book titled “Second Treatise on Government”.

According to the social contract idea advanced by Locke and followed by others, humans in a natural state of freedom do not necessarily respect others’ right to freedom. This leads them to organize their society so as to secure those rights and freedoms. In this connection, the only way for individuals to surrender their natural freedoms and become responsible members of their communities is to form “a civil society by contracting with others” in order to live in comfort, peace and security

Stoicism is a school of thought which argues that human beings are all part of a larger community despite their different political entities and cultures.

There are six key concepts of classical liberal philosophy that are commonly mentioned by the liberal writers, these are; individualism, freedom, natural law, spontaneous order, rule of law and limited state.

Classical liberals accept that order is possible as a result of customs, traditions and societal institutions. Smith’s explanation of the free market and his famous example the invisible hand denotes such understanding.

According to realist philosopher Thomas Hobbes, in the state of nature, individuals lived together out of fear and they had the right to do anything necessary for survival in their struggle for life.

In Leviathan, Hobbes wrote about the dangers of unrestrained individual freedom and the stability sustained by the sovereign’s rule.

In the Grotian view, diplomacy is the bond between members of international society that converge around common norms and goals that is international law

Since there is need for consensus and collective decision making mechanisms, it is not easy to realize global governance and it is in the interests of the actors to follow this path or not.

Kant in his book “Perpetual Peace” (1795) wrote about three definitive articles that had to be accepted by all nations for a perpetual peace to exist.

Classic Marxist theory is essentially based on the evolution of capitalism and class conflict in the Western world. It is argued that the capitalism of 19th century in Europe emerged out of the earlier feudal system. In the capitalist system, private interests control labor and market exchanges. A clash inevitably arises between the controlling capitalist class and the controlled working class. The correct answer is C.

Marx and Engels predicted the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by workers and the eventual attainment of a classless society. A clash inevitably arises between the controlling capitalist class and the controlled working class. Out of this clash, a new socialist order is born in the end. The correct answer is B.

It is from the German philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel that Marx learned a way of thinking about the world, called “dialectics”. British political economists, especially Adam Smith and David Ricardo, provided Marx with a first approximation of his labor theory of value. Finally from many French utopians, such as Charles Fourier and the Comte de Saint-Simon, Marx borrowed the idea of a happier future beyond capitalism. These are the main ingredients that led to the formation of Marxism. The correct answer is A.

In the theory of alienation, Marx argues that workers in the capitalist society do not own the means of production, such as machines, raw materials, or factories. These are owned by the capitalists to whom the workers must sell their labor force. This system of labor displays four relations that lie at the core of Marx’s theory of alienation: First, the worker is alienated from his or her productive activity, playing no part in deciding what to do or how to do. Second, the worker is alienated from the product of that activity, having no control over what happens to it. Third, the worker is alienated from other human beings, with competition and mutual indifference. This applies not only to relations with the capitalists, who use their control over the worker’s activity and product to further their own profit maximizing interests, but also to relations between individuals inside the working class as everyone tries to survive as best as he or she can. Finally, the worker is alienated from the distinctive potential for creativity and community. As a result, workers gradually lose their ability to develop finer qualities as members of human species. The correct answer is B.

Marx argues that the actual course of history is determined by class struggle.  To Marx, each class is defined chiefly by its relation to the production process. The interests of the capitalists lie in securing their power and expanding profits. Workers, on the other hand, have interests in higher wages and better working conditions. In order to realize them, they need a new distribution of power. These two major classes constantly try to promote their interests at the expense of the other and their goals are truly incompatible.  In this battle, the capitalists are aided by their wealth, their control of the state, and their domination over other institutions, such as schools, media, and religious institutions that guide people’s thinking. In brief, choice E reflects a view of Marx, so it is not a criticism against classical Marxism. The correct answer is E.

False consciousness, in Marxist philosophy, refers to the notion that members of the proletariat unwittingly misperceive their real position in society and systematically misunderstand their true interests within the social relations of production under capitalism. False consciousness, to Marx, denotes people’s inability to recognize inequality, oppression, and exploitation in a capitalist society. The correct answer is D.