History, action and identity: revisiting the 'second' great debate and assessing its importance for social theory

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dc.contributor.authorKRATOCHWIL, Friedrich
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-23T13:41:01Z
dc.date.available2011-05-23T13:41:01Z
dc.date.issued2006
dc.description.abstractThis article raises the issue about the nature of knowledge in practical matters. Traditionally this question has been answered by pointing to 'theory-building' and to field independent epistemological criteria that are supposed to provide the knowledge warrants for the assertions made within a theoretical framework. In this context universality, i.e. generality and trans-historical reliability of the 'data', are particularly powerful criteria that establish the `truth' of theoretical propositions through 'tests' and thus contribute to cumulative 'knowledge'. But this ideal of 'theoretical' knowledge significantly misunderstands both the type of knowledge we need when we make practical choices and that of 'history' in constituting us as agents. In using Bull's argument in the second debate as a foil, and in revisiting also the controversies concerning the democratic peace and the role of macro-historical studies I first elaborate on the nature of the 'historicity' and situatedness of all practical knowledge. In a second step, I attempt to clarify how the knowledge of the past relates to practical choices in that 'history' is not simply a storehouse of fixed data, but a product of memory, which in turn is deeply involved in our constructions of identity and of the political projects we pursue. In a third step I adumbrate the criteria for knowledge generation that are more appropriate when we face practical problems.
dc.identifier.citationEuropean journal of international relations, 2006, 12, 1, 5-29
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/1354066106061323
dc.identifier.endpage29
dc.identifier.issn1354-0661
dc.identifier.issue1
dc.identifier.startpage5
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/17471
dc.identifier.volume12
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectSocial theory
dc.subjectKnowledge
dc.subjectEpistemology
dc.subjectAgency
dc.subjectConflict theory
dc.subjectMemory
dc.subjectHistory
dc.subjectIdentity formation
dc.titleHistory, action and identity: revisiting the 'second' great debate and assessing its importance for social theory
dc.typeArticle
dspace.entity.typePublication
eui.subscribe.skiptrue
person.identifier.other26151
relation.isAuthorOfPublication905f26e3-7f41-4eda-a6ab-66b87c06c8a2
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery905f26e3-7f41-4eda-a6ab-66b87c06c8a2
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