Knowledge: Hans Morgenthau and Epistemology

Abstract

Other than the ontological element of Morgenthau’s worldview, epistemological aspects in his vast oeuvre have only since recently attracted more academic interest (cf. Williams 2005a; Hamati-Ataya 2010; Behr and Rösch 2012; Rösch 2013a; Molloy 2013; Behr 2013b; Levine 2013). This relative neglect explains why Morgenthau was for a long time disregarded as a positivist by the majority of the discipline (cf. Wasserman 1959; Smith 1997). Even today, contributions to International Relations demonstrate unease to acknowledge that Morgenthau’s work is in stark contrast to the positivistic traditions, by arguing that Morgenthau was neither a coherent positivist, nor a clear antipositivist, as exemplified in the works of Rohde (2004) and Stefano Guzzini (1998, 2004).