The subject of the article are the problems encountered in the research area of International Relations, resulting primarily from the theoretical divisions caused by the so-called ‘Great Debates’. The text also addresses the consequences of theoretical debates for the development of the discipline and the possibilities to continue them. Furthermore, the multidisciplinary nature of this research area, on which opinions of researchers vary, has been identified as the source of insufficient scientific progress in international relations studies. The second part of the publication presents the main dividing line in the Fourth Great Debate (the most recent one), namely the division into positivist and post-positivist theories of international relations. The differences between these two have been shown primarily on the example of their attitudes to the notion of causality as well as to the role they ascribe to social contexts. The article is also an attempt to place the issues addressed by the Fourth Great Debate in the context of the Polish discourse.