Political Analysis

1 Political Analysis Social constructivism is a theory that holds that people actively develop or construct their knowledge about the world they live in or particular issues through experiences they draw from social interactions. How people understand reality is influenced their experiences, underscoring how the interaction between people help them to construct artifacts. According to Jean Piaget, ideas from people and information about the environment interact to create knowledge. In essence, constructivism postulates that the world is a social construction.

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2 Cognitive constructivists hold that individuals understand the world based on their intellectual or mental capabilities, while social constructivists emphasize the impact of a person's experiences on knowledge about the world. Whereas someone's cognitive ability indeed plays a role in gaining knowledge about various issues, cognitive capabilities can develop from socialization and vice versa. Furthermore, cognitive constructivists do not account for how a person's gains knowledge about the world without prior knowledge of what it is (Cartwright and Montuschi, 2014). In this respect, constructivism does not explain every aspect of learning new ideas.

Constructivism also holds that identities are developed from social interactions but fail to explain how isolated societies or people develop their identities. The idea of relativism in constructivism leaves little to be desired in explaining conventional knowledge beyond social constructions (Cartwright and Montuschi, 2014). People or societies can reject identities that are imposed on them through interaction with other societies. For instance, if society was labeled as a criminal, it does not automatically mean that its members will start viewing themselves as criminals. Instead, the targeted society can reject the criminal, underlining the inadequacy of constructivism to explain how identities are developed.

The world is not purely about social constructions, as constructivists put it.

Constructivism argument that knowledge is relative rather than a product of perception goes against reality. The theory also does not address deception and inherently shared norms (Cartwright and Montuschi, 2014). One does not need to be socialized in a particular way to understand that war is dangerous and can lead to deaths. All over the world, human beings understand war as an event that has adverse effects on peace. It would therefore be inaccurate to consider our knowledge about war as a social construct.

3 Conversely, it is true that how people perceive war may vary from one society to another based on their social environment (Cartwright and Montuschi, 2014). For instance, jihadists are socialized to fancy war, underpinning their understanding of warfare. Nevertheless, one may be socialized to embrace jihadism but without success. Constructivism cannot explain why one would embrace jihadism as someone else rejects it under the same conditions. The differences simply mean that knowledge about something is not solely dependent on social or cognitive influences but also individual factors.

In conclusion, the most compelling criticism of constructivism is that it fails to account for prior knowledge that a person may have about something that is not a product of socialization or cognitive abilities. Social constructivism focuses on how collaboration between people and society helps them develop knowledge, ignoring individuality in knowledge creation.

Constructivism does not account for inborn capabilities that help individuals understand the world, which limits the application of the theory.

4 Bibliography Cartwright, N. and Montuschi, E. (2014). Philosophy of Social Science: a new introduction.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.