Epistemology, Ontology and the Critique of Political Economy

Abstract

This chapter discusses some literature in International Political Economy and International Relations in order to compare and contrast orthodox and critical perspectives on knowledge, power and world order. Using Gramsci’s distinction between historical materialism and historical economism it attempts to highlight and critique a widespread tendency to use transhistorical theorizations based upon sets of a priori categories that appear to take on an ontological autonomy: a characteristic associated with American neo-realism and mechanical, economistic forms of Marxism.