Transcending Postmodernism

Contemporary philosophy is torn between a reliance on the pragmatic meanings of designated objects and a foundation based on formal theory. This book shows that philosophical knowledge, which no more has a terminal state than an infinite set has a last term, advances when the dialectical relationship between the two approaches is synthesized. The choice of designations is intimately related to theory and the form of theory is intimately related to the character of designated objects. The intimate dialectical relationship between theory and meaning is explored in detail in the area of international theory. The recent emphasis on realism rests on a regressive misunderstanding of the dialectical relationship between theory and practice that loses Newton's acute understanding of it, an understanding that underlies the great advances of physics, and that is lost in the contemporary social sciences.

Morton A. Kaplan is Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago, USA. He is an internationally renowned scholar in Political Science and International Relations, and a pioneer in the development of systems theory and its application to world politics. His System and Process in International Politics (1957) is a classic of International Relations theory.

Inanna Hamati-Ataya is Lecturer in the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, UK.

 
Patrick A Heelan is William A. Gaston Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University, USA.