Sorting through the wealth of notions.
A commentary on Stephen M. Walt's “Rigor or Rigor Mortis? Rational Choice and Security Studies,” which appeared in International Security, vol. 23, no. 4, Spring 1999, pp. 5-48. Walt argues that the central aim of social science is to develop knowledge that is relevant to understanding important s...
| Published in: | International Security Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 56 - 74 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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MIT Press
Fall 1999
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=511135304&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 511135304 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01622889 ISC jtl: International Security issn: 01622889 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall 1999 vid: 24 iid: 2 pid: 776 pub: MIT Press artinfo: ui: 511135304 10.1162/016228899560149 ppf: 56 ppct: 18 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: T tig: atl: Sorting through the wealth of notions. aug: au: Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce Morrow, James D. su: Game theory International relations education Rational choice theory International security sug: subj: Game theory International relations education Rational choice theory International security ab: A commentary on Stephen M. Walt's “Rigor or Rigor Mortis? Rational Choice and Security Studies,” which appeared in International Security, vol. 23, no. 4, Spring 1999, pp. 5-48. Walt argues that the central aim of social science is to develop knowledge that is relevant to understanding important social problems, and this requires, among other things, theories that are precise, logically consistent, original, and empirically valid. The writers explore how the rational choice approach to security studies contributes significantly in these ways, and they address some misrepresentations in Walt's article. They outlines some of the advantages of using formal theory to sort through the wealth of ideas that exist in international politics. They demonstrate that Walt at times misrepresents the arguments advanced in papers using formal models, and they outline how Walt's article appears to suffer from some confusion about the scientific enterprise. They agree with Walt that security studies should welcome contributions from formal theory. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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