한스 모겐소(Hans Morgenthau)의 고전적 현실주의 국제정치이론 - 메타이론적 검토와 실천지(prudence)의 의미

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss Hans Morgenthau" s political realism, especially his metatheoretical elements of realism and the relationship between theory and practice. I argue that, although Morgenthau did not neglect rational elements in politics susceptible to positivist or rationalist theory, he still espoused the idea of non-rationalism or anti-rationalism in its strong form by retaining what I call epistemological, ontological, ethical/practical skepticism.

To support this idea, I discuss his view about the nature and limit of social and political knowledge, the issue of how his epistemological assumption affects his basic framework of political realist theory, his views on human nature, and the analysis of the actual empirical cases of his time. Morgenthau, living in the period in which the intellectual conflict between the traditional, historical methodology and the newly rising positivist, scientist methodology became increasingly prominent, developed his own view as to the nature and limit of social and political knowledge. Skepticism concerning the possibility of establishing a reliable rationalist or scientist epistemology as in the fields of natural science has marked Morgenthau"s thinking about international relations theory. Political realist philosophy that he had developed is, then, based on his epistemological skepticism, and distinguished from other realists" efforts to theorize international relations by employing natural science, positivist epistemological assumptions.

Morgenthau, unlike popular identification of his realism as moral skepticism or realpolitik by others, tried to find a way to apply moral principle to fleeting circumstances. The reason why we need prudence and practical wisdom to apply moral principles is that we cannot predict and know the political common life by reconstructing it on the basis of rationalist epistemology. He is skeptical about the possibility of knowing the external reality on the basis of the rationalist autonomy principle. Morgenthau stressed the need for practical wisdom in the form of political intuition. The fact that political intuition is hard to acquire by rational analysis of reality gives us a challenge that rationalists cannot meet.