REALIZING THEORY - THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE REVISITED

Contemporary issues in the philosophy of science, and the recent turn to scientific realism in political theory, prompt both a reconsiderati on of the nature of theory in social scientific inquiry and an examina tion of current attempts to appropriate philosophical arguments in sup port of images of theory and the relationship between social science a nd political practice. Metatheoretical claims about the explanation of social phenomena and about the possibilities of a critical social sci ence are not a substitute for a substantive theory of social reality a nd a confrontation with the practical issue of the relationship betwee n political theory and politics.