Theoretical Look at International Relations

Abstract

The word theory is originally Greek. In ancient Greek, it means "contemplation, thinking, mental view". From here, we can say that with theory, on the one hand, we mean the act of thinking, contemplating, visualizing in our mind; on the other hand, we mean the products of these actions. Indeed, when we say theoretical study in any discipline, we refer to our efforts to think, contemplate, understand, and explain directed at the field of that discipline. When we talk about theories related to a discipline, we refer to the results of the explanation and understanding efforts put forward within that discipline. So, theory is nothing more than an effort to understand reality in the first place. Reality is the human and physical universe in which we are also included and everything that happens in this universe. If theory includes the effort to understand-explain reality, which it does, then the theory itself inherently contains a practice. This is the simplest expression of the idea that the theory-practice distinction is not absolute. We usually talk about such a distinction, but this distinction is a distinction made for functional and pedagogical purposes, it is not absolute. In other words, every theorist is practicing and every practitioner is a theory. Someone who does specific political work, even if he is not aware of it, is actually based on a theory or theoretical principles. In its expression in the philosophy of science, it works within a certain paradigm. Theory is in a sense abstraction. Abstraction, that is, partially independent expression from individual phenomena and parts. This is inevitable. Because our communication requires this. It is not possible to transfer everyone's perception of a certain object exactly to the other. Since the purpose of transmission and the purpose of perception cannot be the same, it is necessary to establish a common tool for communication with the other. This is language. The words and expressions we use in our language are a product of abstraction. There are countless "apple" trees on earth. None of them are exactly the same as the other. But based on certain commonalities, we partially abstract from individual trees by giving them the name "apple". We only communicate as a result of this abstraction. In addition, there is not a hundred percent parallelism between us who are trying to understand-explain reality and this reality.

Keywords

International Relations, Theory, Practice

Citation

International Relations, Volume 2, Issue 6, Summer 2005, pp. 157-163

Affiliations

• Nuri Yurdusev, Associate Professor, Middle East Technical University, Department of International Relations