Description
In light of the ongoing debates surrounding reason and empiricism and their congruence in the construction of International Relations (IR), this paper seeks to explain how the Newtonian philosophy has shaped IR through its principal theoretical framework: the Realism. Amongst the influence of Isaac Newton’s discoveries and contributions on various epistemological grounds, the impact on social sciences remains relatively unexplored. The idealisation of reality as a perfect machine, situated within an environment comprising entities behaving accordingly to predicted laws, not only developed the field of hard sciences, but also shaped how social sciences interacted with and understood their own surroundings Consequently, the hegemonic status of Realism within IR theories, which were conceived in the context of the scientificisation of IR, led to the Newtonian heritage being brought to the discipline. This prompted the emergence of other theories that were influenced by this way of thinking to a certain extent, either contributing to Realism or offering a critique of it. This influence has shaped the discipline's theoretical, analytical, and practical approaches within an environment characterised by diverse worldviews that challenge the assumptions made by the Newtonian mechanical approach.
Keywords: International Relations Theory, Realism, Newtonianism
