International Relations. A self-Study Guide to Theory

The society of individuals. Other titles in the recommended reading section at 
the end of this unit also provide a more critical view of the perspective. 
In addition to atomism, the work of Descartes resulted in a consolidation 
of dualist thought on body and mind (Bedenig 2001: 85). Descartes assumed 
body and mind to be separate entities, as expressed by his well-known Ego 
cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). The scientific, philosophical and 
theological repercussions were far-reaching: with the work of Descartes, the 
body-mind duality became a “sharp” divide (Harrison 2000: 2). Dualism on 
the classical body-mind/body-soul/matter-mind problem – the claim that nei-
ther mind nor matter can be reduced to each other – became typical for Euro-
pean/Western philosophy and is deeply embedded in the European idea of sci-
ence as well. The body-mind/matter-mind problem is not only an abstract 
philosophical puzzle, but also has implications for how we assume the ontolo-
gy of a core subject in an academic discipline, how we perceive the human 

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85 
mind and thus mental constructs and theory, how we ascribe ontological status 
to social phenomena, how we perceive the position of the scientist in regard to 
the “object” of scientific inquiry, etc. We will come back to these questions in 
more detail in the final section of this unit and at the end of the book. 
The Cartesian-Newtonian perspective is further associated with utilitari-
anism, a concept which goes back to the influential works of Francis Bacon 
(1561-1626). According to this view, the purpose of natural science was to 
control and dominate nature and to utilize nature to improve human culture 
(Schupp 2003: 60-62). Knowledge was given value through its utility for 
technology and the progress of civilization. The ideas of Francis Bacon had 
their heyday with the industrial revolution and with the rise of positivism as 
the dominant philosophy of science in the 19
th
century. In addition, you can 
easily see that the natural laws inherent in Cartesian-Newtonian science can 
evoke a strong belief in determinism. This belief is exemplified in the works 
of Pierre Simon Laplace, a French astronomer and mathematician. His fa-
mous Laplace’s Demon (1814) incorporates determinism, depicting a strict 
deterministic world governed by laws, with the task of natural philosophy 
(mechanics/physics) being to formulate these laws through mathematics (for 
Laplace, this takes place in terms of differential equations). 
Summary
The rise of Cartesian-Newtonian science was a process of transition towards 
a new scientific world view. Transition occurred in the form of a new status 
for the natural sciences. Natural science became empirical science. 
During this 17
th
century process, the Cartesian and Newtonian systems 
“mathematized and mechanized” the scientific view of the world (Harrison 
2000: 2). The Cartesian-Newtonian world view imagined the universe as a 
complex mechanical system of divine origin. This universe consisted of in-
numerous material particles moving in infinite space according to a range 
of physical laws that were mathematically presentable (for example, ac-
cording to the law of gravity). In this world view, light consists of the 
smallest mechanical particles. The earth moves around the sun on an ellip-
tic path, as do all the other planets, with the sun being only one star among 
many (an atomistic model of the universe). This model is linked to the idea 
of an infinitely expanding universe. From this perspective, there are clearly 
defined natural laws that govern life on earth and in the entire universe. The 
relations are causal; that is, a cause exists for each single event on earth or 
in the universe. The role of the human is to come to know the laws of the 
cosmos and to make use of them. Theory and experiment form equal parts 
of scientific methodology, but theories cannot be accepted until they have 

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been verified by experimental proof. However, this verification also implies 
the need and willingness to question “old” knowledge and, if necessary, re-
place it with new knowledge as soon as the new knowledge has been 
proved correct.
Through this process, philosophy (of science) became naturalized, math-
ematized and mechanized. This transformation can be regarded as almost 
natural, as the philosophy of the early modern age cannot be separated from 
what was happening in the sciences and vice versa (Lefèvre 2001: viii, viii-
x). The single scholars (exemplified by Descartes and Newton) contributed to 
the development of more than one field of knowledge (e.g. mathematics, 
physics, astronomy, philosophy, optics) or, in some cases, to all of them. For 
example, Descartes’ mathematics strongly affected his philosophy and vice 
versa. These are “processes of co-evolution” among different fields of 
knowledge, with the linkage between mathematics, mechanics and philoso-
phy at the core (Lefèvre 2001: viii). Philosophy, mathematics and the scienc-
es thus formed a “unity of parts” (Lefèvre 2001: ix) in terms of overarching 
patterns/orders of thought. This unity can be seen, for example, in the philos-
ophy of Immanuel Kant. Kant drew on Newtonian physics and its theoretical 
concepts, especially with regard to the concepts of absolute time and absolute 
space. The same holds true for Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, whose “monadol-
ogy” (1714) drew on both the biological concepts of microorganisms current 
at this time and the hypotheses of the mathematical calculus of infinite re-
gression/infinitely smaller entities (derivative and differential calculus). The 
interrelation of science, mathematics, philosophy and methodology thus ob-
tained a new quality in the 17
th
century, with those fields of knowledge be-
coming intimately interdependent (Lefèvre 2001: viii).
Furthermore, the scientific revolution was important not only for the idea 
of science, but also for political, cultural, industrial and technological devel-
opment in Europe. These developments ultimately led to Europe’s worldwide 
predominance, while the Enlightenment and the French revolution further 
strengthened both the rights and position of the individual in Europe and the 
strict separation of church and state. These changes worked to further stimu-
late the development of the natural sciences. For example, Charles Darwin’s 
work in biology (1859: On the origins of species by means of natural selec-