Peace Research as `International' - in What Sense?

Abstract

The article presents the notion of peace research, as exemplified by Johan Galtung, as a cognitive movement from the ideational to the anthropo-centric conception. In its anthropo-centric conception, the notion displays a variation in which the progress of man is outlined as a telic process of the mind (as opposed to the genetic process of nature); a process whereby man is able to make choices and direct his own development. In the post-World War II decades, the anthropo-centric concern for progress through mind is actualized as a problem of formation of mental attitude. It is further anticipated that in peace research this movement, in the sense of the cognitive process of research (not in focus here), outlines an idea of the mind-in-progress which is an idea of the moral man. Finally, the author points out an alternative direction to the anthropo-centric critique of the ideational conception in terms of which, according to the thesis of the article, the cognitive movement of peace research largely makes itself understood.