Reflectivism is a range of approaches to social science, and notably political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 which oppose realism

Philosophical realism

Contemporary philosophical realism is the belief that our reality, or some aspect of it, is ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc....

 and more generally, positivism

Positivism

Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

. These approaches are often given more particular (and familiar) titles, including feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

, and critical theory

Critical theory

Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...

. The challenge these approaches made to realism has been coined the third debate in International Relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

, the first two being between rationalism

Rationalism

In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...

 and historicism

Historicism

Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...

, and between liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 and realism

Realism (international relations)

In the study of international relations, Realism or political realism prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns and social reconstructions...

. In this debate, reflectivism emphasizes the interpretation of events rather than the empirical data. Reflectivists believe that empirical study is unable to explain norms

Norm (sociology)

Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...

, both in terms of how they arise and how they influence people. This means that reflectivists often can be constructivist

Constructivism (learning theory)

Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. During infancy, it was an interaction between human experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget called these systems of...

 in approach. On the other hand, some political scientists so reject reflectivism as to reframe the third debate as a contestation between constructivism and rationalism.

Criticism of reflectivist approaches

The main criticism of reflectivist approaches stems from the epistemological differences between reflectivism and what could be called positivism. In the last decade, social science has become an increasingly positivist and empirically centered field. The reflectivist rejection of this approach has led to criticism that the approach cannot make reliable statements about the outside world. This criticism has stuck for many American political sciences, and reflectivism is not popular in the United States, especially in comparison with European and third world scholars.