| Summary/Abstract |
The status of International Relations (IR) theory and its relevance for politics and ethics is the topic of an ongoing debate in the discipline.1 I argue that a reflection on IR ontologies and epistemologies is central in this regard. Epistemological positions have a claim on the way we believe we can achieve knowledge, and ontological commitments have a claim on the nature of “what is out there.” They shape how we imagine the world is and the way we fit in it. As Foucault (1991) has argued, the problem of truth is deeply political. The notion of “truth” encompasses both ontological and epistemological trajectories. The way we think about these two trajectories is central to devising possibilities for political agency and the way we justify our actions.
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