The Critical Theory of Cox: a methodological investigation

• Grant number: 18/20782-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2018
• End date: November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Duarte Fernandes dos Passos
• Grantee: Frederico di Palma Xavier Aguiar
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Social Sciences, on methodological terms, there is a list of difficulties observable in the most varied currents - from analytical perspectives, to dialectical or hermeneutic ones; and among these anomalies, in addition to reductionism and dualism, there is eclecticism, which, in general, represents the use of concepts displaced from their theoretical frameworks, which ultimately transfigures their meanings. The "Third Debate" in International Relations theory is based on discussions in which, although the addition of theoretical elements, its authors end up debating with Kenneth Waltz within his own intellectual record - instead of proposing alternative aspects. In this way, Robert W. Cox proposes a theoretical composition, in the same intellectual register, between elements that come from theories classified by him as traditional, or "problem-solving" (referring to realistic and neoliberal aspects), and elements from a "critical theory" that dialogues with references that argue a historically endowed strand, harboring a totalizing perspective and inserted in a context of purpose that aims at transformation. The research proposal in this document seeks, precisely, an investigation in the field of international relations about the methodological possibility of realizing, in the same intellectual register, a bridge between these two theoretical groups according to Robert W. Cox.