| JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Bologna Center |
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17:30, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2010 - AUDITORIUM The Making and Testing of Theories & What Scientists and Philosophers of Science Say about Theory A Two-part Lecture Series. Lecture 1
Kenneth N. Waltz
Ford Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University
What do philosophers of science, natural scientists, and social scientists say about the making and testing of theories? Should the results of tests be taken as conclusive or as suggestive? If a theory flunks tests, must it be discarded? In Theory of International Politics (McGraw Hill, 1979), I wrote, “By one definition, theories are collections or sets of laws pertaining to a particular behavior or phenomenon…. A theory arranges phenomena so that they are seen as mutually dependent; it connects otherwise disparate facts; it shows how changes in some of the phenomena necessarily entail changes in others. To form a theory requires envisioning a pattern where none is visible to the naked eye.” What do philosophers of science, natural scientists, and social scientists say about the making and testing of theories? What is the difference between induction and deduction? What does each offer the theory-building process? Should the results of hypothesis tests be taken as conclusive or as suggestive? If a theory flunks tests, must it be discarded? What is the difference between theory and law? Can theories be proven true or false? What is the role of creativity in the construction of theory? KENNETH N. WALTZ Kenneth N. Waltz, Ford Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, has also taught at Swarthmore and Brandeis, and now is Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University. Waltz is one of the most prominent scholars of international relations alive today and is one of the founders of neorealism, or structural realism, in international relations theory and the author of numerous books including Man, the State, and War (1959); Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics (1967); Theory of International Politics (1979); and The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed (2nd ed., 2002). Waltz is a former President of the American Political Science Association and a recipient of its James Madison Award for Distinguished Scholarly Contributions to Political Science. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Waltz, who is also a veteran, received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1957. |