Abstract
This article argues that ‘middle-ground’ constructivism is based on an uneasy tension between mental causality and rump materialism that shows itself as a conflict between upward determination of ideas and their downward causation on the material world. Even Alexander Wendt's recent turn to quantum and a holographic model of society does not solve this problem. Instead, his turn shows that the more mental causality and thus an autonomy of ‘consciousness’ is granted, the more an ontologically based constructivism becomes implausible. In clarifying differences and similarities between different strands of constructivism, this article argues for a reorientation of our focus on the mind–body problem. From this perspective, however, constructivism presents itself not as some middle ground, but is rather characterized by its attempt to overcome Cartesian categories.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The moderate version is presented in Adler (1997), Checkel (1997, 1998), Risse (2000), Risse and Wiener (1999) and Wendt (1991, 1998). The more radical version is associated with the work of Friedrich Kratochwil (1989, 2000), Nick Onuf (1989) and Stefano Guzzini (2000).
For a deeper exploration on causality, see Kurki (2007).
Of course, some moderate constructivists claim to have overcome the ideas/matter distinction. However, they then continue to reproduce the distinction. See for example Joseph (2007: 350).
The recent exchange (Doty 1997, 1999; Wight 1999, 2000; Bieler and Morton 2001) within European Journal of International Relations inaugurated a second generation of agent-structure theorizing. Characteristic of this new generation is an openly pursued theoretical diversity that negates the very existence of a one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, the problem is to be contextualized and analysed from different perspectives. Doty offers post-structuralism, Wight critical realism and Bieler and Morton neo-gramscianism as possible solutions. Although I am convinced that this approach will serve as a fruitful reference point for further clarification of conceptions of agency and structure embedded within different theoretical approaches, this part focuses primarily on Alexander Wendt and thus the Wendt–Hollis/Smith exchange.
For a deeper discussion on this point see Guzzini and Leander (2006).
See for example Sikkink (1991), Goldstein and Keohane (1993). For a critique see Laffey and Weldes (1997).
In answering the question why a particular set of ideas prevails, this dualism has led to the focus on ‘sponsorship’ arguments which, however, and quite contradictory to an assumed impact of ideas, refers to the materiality of interests. See for example Finnemore and Sikkink (1998: 887–917) and Sikkink (1991).
I will not discuss the ‘reasons vs causes’ debate within the philosophy of mind in more detail. For that see Davidson (1963, 1980a) and Dretske (1988a).
Wendt certainly departs from the positivist notion of causality. For similar attempts see Kurki (2007) among many.
This is not to suggest that the mind–body problem is a transhistorically stable question. Quite the contrary. Various philosophical systems, in particular Aristotle, Kant, and Wittgenstein, have altered its framework fundamentally. But this reference suggests that the mind–body problem is linked to the self-understanding of ‘modern’ mankind and that different paradigms of the mind–body problem, or indeed, the very absence of it, indicate its social context. I thank one reviewer for pointing this out to me.
What can already be seen is an inherent link with issues of ‘cause’, ‘causation’ and ‘explanation’: while psychophysical causation may be understood in terms of ‘impulse’ or ‘energy transference’, it is doubtful that mental to mental causation belongs to the same category. However, this avenue cannot be pursued in this article.
Society is seen as the sum of individuals and their interaction. As ‘inter-action’ is the basic unit (logical atom), society is seen as a problem of ‘aggregation’. Clearly, this goes back to Hobbes' famous ontological presumption that only bodies are able to move bodies. What cannot be dealt with at the moment is the relevance of Rousseau's critique that only by integrating individuals via norms can necessary cohesion for reproduction of society be provided.
As will be discussed later: Moreover, according to classic logic's axioms (identity, non-contradiction, excluded third), knowledge is assumed to be homogenous, hierarchically ordered, and storable: as we approach ultimate truth, our stock of knowledge increases allowing for progress (‘success of science’) and human freedom.
Most of all Davidson (1980b, 1980c). Fodor (1975, 1990) and Dretske (1988a, 1989, 2000) attempted to specify how physical states can be seen as having explanatory and causal relevant content. Given the theoretical attractiveness of this position, approaches like token identity (MacDonald 1989), type identity (Lewis 1983; Armstrong and Malcom 1984) and functionalism (Block 1980; Van Gulick 1982; Davidson 1984) belong to the hottest debated and dominant research areas today.
For reasons of space, I will leave out discussion of various forms of supervenience like weak, strong or global supervenience. For a discussion see Kim (1984).
This is the central point of Godehard Brüntrup's discussion, (1994: 46).
Most famously Dretske (1988b) but see also Wendt (2006: 191).
Although he thinks that post-modern approaches would not have a background in ‘natural’ science or complexity theory. It is unfortunate that Wendt does not engage more fully with the literature because I guess he would soon find out that it actually does. One need just consider the importance of second order cybernectics or the work of Michel Serres.
Characterized as an ontological trilemma, a conflict between mental causality and ontological causality was detected: when ontology is put first, the possibility of mental causality cannot be seriously incorporated. An incorporation of mental causality, however, challenges the validity of realist ontology.
Wittgenstein (1953: § 17) but see also Lakoff (1987), Douglas (1992), Goodman et al. (1992).
See for example Fierke (2002) and in particular Guzzini (2005).
References
Adler, Emmanuel (1997) ‘Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics’, European Journal of International Relations 3 (3): 319–363.
Ashley, Richard (1988) ‘Untying the Sovereign State: A Double Reading of the Anarchy Problematique’, Millennium 17 (2): 227–262.
Armstrong, David M. and Norman Malcom (1984) Consciousness and Causality: A Debate on the Nature of Mind, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Bhaskar, Roy (1979) The Possibility of Naturalism, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
Bieler, Andreas and Adam David Morton (2001) ‘The Gordian Knot of Agency–Structure in International Relations: A Neo-Gramscian Perspective’, European Journal of International Relations 7 (1): 5–35.
Bieri, Peter (1993) Analytische Philosophie des Geistes, Bodenheim: Athenäum Hain Hanstein.
Blitz, David (1992) Emergent Evolution: Qualitative Novelty and the Levels of Reality, Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Block, Fred (1980) Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Blyth, Mark M. (1997) ‘Any More Bright Ideas? The Ideational Turn of Comparative Political Economy’, Comparative Politics 29 (2): 229–250.
Brüntrup, Godehard (1994) Mentale Verursachung, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Campbell, Keith (1970) Body and Mind, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Checkel, Jeffrey T. (1997) ‘International Norms and Domestic Politics: Bridging the Rationalist-Constructivist Divide’, European Journal of International Relations 3 (4): 473–495.
Checkel, Jeffrey T. (1998) ‘The Constructivist Turn in International Relations’, World Politics 50 (2): 324–348.
Churchland, Paul M. (1981) ‘Eliminative Materlialism and the Propositional Attitudes’, The Journal of Philosophy 78 (2): 67–90.
Churchland, Paul M. (1988) Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cederman, Lars-Erik (1997) Emergent Actors in World Politics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Clarke, Samuel and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1956) The Leibniz–Clarke Correspondence: Together with Extracts from Newton's Principia and Opticks, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Davidson, David (1963) ‘Actions, Reasons, and Causes’, The Journal of Philosophy 60 (23): 685–700.
Davidson, David (1980a) Essays on Actions and Events, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Davidson, David (1980b) ‘Causal Relations’, in David Davidson, ed., Essays on Actions and Events, 149–162, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Davidson, David (1980c) ‘Mental Events’, in David Davidson, ed., Essays on Actions and Events, 207–227, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Davidson, David (1984) ‘True to the Facts’, in Donald Davidson, ed., Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation, 37–54, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Doty, Roxanne Lynn (1997) ‘Aporia: A Critical Exploration of the Agent–Structure Problematique in International Relations Theory’, European Journal of International Relations 3 (3): 365–392.
Doty, Roxanne Lynn (1999) ‘A Reply to Colin Wight’, European Journal of International Relations 5 (3): 287–390.
Douglas, Mary (1992) Risk and Blame: Essays in Cultural Theory, London: Routledge.
Dretske, Fred (1988a) Explaining Behavior, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dretske, Fred (1988b) ‘The Explanatory Role of Content’, in Robert H. Grimm and Daniel D. Merveill, eds, Contents of Thoughts, Tuscon: University of Arizona Press.
Dretske, Fred (1989) ‘Reasons and Causes’, Philosophical Perspectives 3: 1–15.
Dretske, Fred (2000) Perception, Knowledge and Belief: Selected Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fierke, Karin (2002) ‘Links Across the Abyss: Language and Logic in International Relations’, International Studies Quarterly 43 (3): 331–354.
Fierke, Karin (2004) ‘Whereof We Can Speak, Thereof We Must Not Be Silent: Trauma, Political Solipsism and War’, Review of International Studies 30 (4): 471–491.
Finnemore, Martha and Kathryn Sikkink (1998) ‘International Norm Dynamics and Political Change’, International Organization 52 (4): 887–917.
Fodor, Jerry (1975) The Language of Thought, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
Fodor, Jerry (1990) A Theory of Content, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Giddens, Anthony (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Glasersfeld, Ernst von (1993) Wissen und Gewissen, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.
Goldstein, Judith and Robert O. Keohane (1993) Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Goodman, Nelson, Mary Douglas and David L. Hull (1992) How Classification Works: Nelson Goodman Among the Social Sciences, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Guzzini, Stefano (2000) ‘A Reconstruction of Constructivism in International Relations’, European Journal of International Relations 6 (1): 147–182.
Guzzini, Stefano (2005) ‘The Concept of Power: A Constructivist Analysis’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33 (3): 495–522.
Guzzini, Stefano and Anna Leander, eds (2006) Constructivism in International Relations: Alexander Wendt and his Critics, London: Routledge.
Heil, John and Alfred Mele (1993) Mental Causation, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hellmann, Günther (2003) ‘Forum: Are Dialogue and Synthesis Possible in International Relations’, International Studies Review 5 (1): 123–153.
Hollis, Martin and Steve Smith (1990) Explaining and Understanding in International Relations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huxley, Thomas H (1986) Method and Results, Essays, New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Jervis, Robert (1997) Systems Effects: Complexity in Political and Social Life, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Joseph, Jonathan (2007) ‘A Scientific Realist Approach’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 35 (2): 345–360.
Kim, Jaegwon (1984) ‘Concepts of Supervenience’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 45: 153–176.
Kim, Jaegwon (1993) Supervenience and Mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kim, Jaegwon (1997) ‘The Mind Body Problem: Taking Stock after Forty Years’, Nous 31 (11): 185–207.
Kontopoulos, Kyriakos M. (1993) The Logics of Social Structure, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kratochwil, Friedrich (1989) Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kratochwil, Friedrich (2000) ‘Constructing a New Orthodoxy? Wendt's “Social Theory of International Politics” and the Constructivist Challenge’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 29 (4): 73–101.
Kratochwil, Friedrich (2007) ‘Of False Promises and Good Bets: A Plea for a Pragmatic Approach to Theory Building’, Journal of International Relations and Development 10 (1): 1–15.
Kurki, Milka (2007) ‘Critical Realism and Causal Analysis in International Relations’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 35 (2): 361–378.
Laffey, Mark and Jutta Weldes (1997) ‘Beyond Belief: Ideas and Symbolic Technologies in the Study of International Relations’, European Journal of International Relations 3 (2): 193–227.
Lakoff, George (1987) Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lapid, Yosef (1989) ‘The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist Era’, International Studies Quarterly 33 (3): 235–254.
Lewis, David (1983) Philosophical Papers, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MacDonald, Cynthia (1989) Mind–Body Identity Theories, London: Routledge.
Margolis, Joseph (1978) Persons and Minds: The Prospects of Nonreductive Materialism, Dordrecht: Reidel.
Morgan, Conwy Lloyd (1923) Emergent Evolution: The Gifford Lectures, London: Williams and Norgate.
Onuf, Nicholas Greenwood (1989) World Of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Polanyi, Michael (1958) Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Popper, Karl and John C. Eccles (1977) The Self and its Brain, New York: Springer.
Risse-Kappen, Thomas (1994) ‘Ideas do not Float Freely: Transnational Coalitions, Domestic Structures, and the End of the Cold War’, International Organization 48 (2): 185–214.
Risse, Thomas (2000) ‘“Let's Argue!” Communicative Action in World Politics’, International Organization 54 (1): 1–39.
Risse, Thomas and Antje Wiener (1999) ‘“Something rotten” and the Social Construction of Social Constructivism: A Comment on Comments’, Journal of European Public Policy 6 (5): 775–782.
Rowland, Mark (1995) Supervenience and Materialism, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Ruggie, John Gerard (1998) ‘“What makes the World Hang Together?” Neo-Utilitarism and the Social Constructivist Challenge’, International Organization 52 (4): 855–885.
Searle, John (1995) The Construction of Social Reality, New York: Free Press.
Sewell, William (1996) ‘Three Temporalities: Towards an Eventful Sociology’, in Terrence J. McDonald, ed., The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences, 245–280, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Sikkink, Kathryn (1991) Ideas and Institutions: Developmentalism in Brazil and Argentina, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Skocpol, Theda (1979) States and Social Revolutions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stich, Stephan (1983) From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science: The Case Against Belief, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Summers, Margaret R. (1996) ‘Where is Sociology after the Historic Turn?’, in Terrence J. McDonald, ed., The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences, 53–89, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Tuck, Richard (1989) Hobbes, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Van Gulick, Robert (1982) ‘Functionalism’, Philosophy Research Archives 8: 185–204.
Waltz, Kenneth (1979) A Theory of International Politics, New York: Random House.
Wendt, Alexander (1987) ‘The Agent–Structure Debate in International Relations’, International Organization 41 (3): 335–370.
Wendt, Alexander (1991) ‘Bridging the Theory/Meta-theory Gap in International Relations’, Review of International Studies 17 (4): 383–392.
Wendt, Alexander (1992) ‘Anarchy is What States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics’, International Organization 46 (2): 391–425.
Wendt, Alexander (1995) ‘Constructing International Politics’, International Security 20 (1): 71–81.
Wendt, Alexander (1998) ‘On Constitution and Causation in International Relations’, Review of International Studies 24 (5): 101–117.
Wendt, Alexander (1999) Social Theory of International Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wendt, Alexander (2006) ‘Social Theory as Cartesian Science: An Auto-critique from a Quantum Perspective’, in Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander, eds, Constructivism and International Relations: Alexander Wendt and his Critics, 181–219, London: Routledge.
Wheeler, William Morton (1928) Emergent Evolution and the Development of Societies, New York: Norton & Company.
Wight, Colin (1999) ‘They Shoot Dead Horses Don’t They? Locating Agency in the Agent–Structure Problematique’, European Journal of International Relations 5 (1): 109–142.
Wight, Colin (2000) ‘Interpretation All the Way Down? A Reply to Roxanne Lynn Doty’, European Journal of International Relations 6 (3): 423–430.
Wight, Colin (2006) Agents, Structures, and International Relations: Politics as Ontology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wight, Colin (2007) ‘Inside the Epistemological Cave all Bets are off’, Journal of International Relations and Development 10 (1): 40–56.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1953) Philosophical Investigations, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Yee, Albert S. (1996) ‘The Causal Effects of Ideas on Policies’, International Organization 50 (1): 69–108.
Zehfuß, Maja (2002) Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgements
I thank Friedrich Kratochwil, Nick Onuf, Mathias Albert, Martin Weber, Antje Wiener, Benjamin Herborth, Martin Koch, Jan Helmig and Peter Lenco for their very helpful comments on previous drafts of this article. My special thanks go to Stefano Guzzini and the anonymous JIRD reviewer for their patience and superb comments. Any remaining errors are entirely my own.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kessler, O. From agents and structures to minds and bodies: of supervenience, quantum, and the linguistic turn. J Int Relat Dev 10, 243–271 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jird.1800131
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jird.1800131