Abstract

This dissertation identifies four presuppositions of present-day International Relations theory. The presuppositions are: transhistoricism, underlying repetition, uniformitarian psychology, and instrumental rationality. These presuppositions are inherent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century social scientific quest for explanation, prediction, and control of social and political phenomena. These naturalist goals have been abandoned largely by many of today's International Relations theorists, but the presuppositions continue to linger. The theorists are unwilling or unable to offer alternatives to the scientific model of explanation in International Relations theory. Without the possibility of alternatives, the theorists hover between the incompatible traditions of explanation and understanding in the history and philosophy of social science. The result is incoherent and confused accounts of what transpires in the world of international politics