Journal of Critical Realism Vol. 1 No. 1 (November 2002)
Articles
Lacey, Hugh. 'Explanatory Critiques and Emancipation'. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 7-31.
Download Free PDFEmancipatory movements need input from social scientific research that involves both mutually reinforcing relations with the values that they endorse and the active participation of their members. I illustrate this by discussing how the theme of the World Social Forum, 'Another world is possible', should be addressed in empirical investigations. Drawing upon a general model of scientific activity and of the interplay of fact and value in it, I defend both the cognitive legitimacy and necessity of this kind of research. My discussion, however, diminishes the significance of Bhaskar's arguments about explanatory critiques and their alleged emancipatory implications by showing that the value judgments, which are derived (ceteris paribus) from theories established under the research just referred to, are already in play in mutually reinforcing relationships with the strategies that frame the research. As background to this analysis I explore the concept of emancipation, attempting to put together Bhaskar's ideas and key ideas of the World Social Forum. Finally, I argue that taking the notion of the neutrality of science seriously can further the emancipatory impulse of the sciences.Hammersley, Martyn. 'Research as Emancipatory: The Case of Bhaskar's Critical Realism'. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 33-48.
Download Free PDFBhaskar's critical realism offers a novel defense of the idea that by providing explanatory critiques of social formations, social research can emancipate us not merely from intellectual error but also from institutional oppression. Indeed, he argues that by its very nature social analysis involves such critique. The various strands of his argument are examined in detail. It is concluded that, while other elements of critical realism are persuasive, this one is not; it neglects the complex relationship between scientific conclusions about facts and practical evaluations of institutions, policies, and practices.Cruickshank, Justin. 'Critical Realism and Critical Philosophy'. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 49-66.
Download Free PDFIn this article I accept the view that critical realism can supply an ontological meta-theory for researchers and I take issue with the criticism that the realist emphasis on ontology results in some form of God's-eye view. To do this I situate critical realism within what I refer to as critical philosophy (which is in broad agreement with Isaiah Berlin's conception of philosophy), and I criticise the deflationary approach to critical philosophy and realism, as exemplified in the neo-pragmatist work of Rorty. My argument is that Rorty misunderstands the method of critical philosophy and its process of concept-formation.Morgan, Jamie. 'Philosophical Realism in International Relations Theory: Kratochwil's Constructivist Challenge to Wendt'. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 95-118.
Download Free PDFThis article takes Kratochwil's critique of Wendt as a point of departure in order to clarify a number of fundamental misapprehensions of the philosophical sources of Wendt's constructivism, elaborating upon problems of empiricist conflations (foundationalism and constant conjunction explanation/causation) as they relate to ontological realist accounts of natural and social reality, and, inter alia, addressing issues of materiality, causation in language, and essence and emergence, as they relate to the sustainability of Wendt's approach. It is concluded that Wendt cannot be excluded from, broadly speaking, the constructivist school on the grounds of Kratochwil's argument, that Wendt's work remains relatively untouched by the tenor of such critique, which misapprehends its philosophical sources, and that, therefore, a potential critique of Social Theory remains at issue.Ron, Amit. 'Regression Analysis and the Philosophy of Social Science: A Critical Realist View'. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 119-142.
Download Free PDFThis paper challenges the connection conventionally made between regression analysis and the empiricist philosophy of science and offers an alternative explication for the way regression analysis is being practiced. The alternative explication is based on critical realism, a competing approach to empiricism in the field of philosophy of science. The paper argues that critical realism can better explicate the way in which scientists 'play' with the data as part of the process of inquiry. The practice of regression analysis is understood by the critical realist explication as a post hoc attempt to identify a restricted closed system. The gist of successful regression analysis is not being able to offer a law-like statement but to bring forth evidence of an otherwise hidden mechanism.
Interview
Bhaskar, Roy. 'The Philosophy of Meta-Reality, Part II: Agency, Perfectibility, Novelty'. Interview. By Mervyn Hartwig. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 67-93.
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Rejoinder
Collier, Andrew. 'Notes on James Daly's Review of Christianity and Marxism'. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 143.
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Reviews
Jones, Branwen Gruffydd. 'International Relations as Internal Relations'. Review of After International Relations: Critical Realism and the (Re)Construction of World Politics, by Heikki Patomäki. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 147-157.
Download Free PDFMorrow, Ross. 'Resisting Rational Choice Theory'. Review of Rational Choice Theory: Resisting Colonization, by Margaret S. Archer and Jonathan Q. Tritter, eds. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 159-165.
Download Free PDFCruickshank, Justin. 'Ontology and Nominalism: On the Case for Critical Realism'. Review of Beyond Relativism: Raymond Boudon, Cognitive Rationality and Critical Realism, by Cynthia Lins Hamlin. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 165-167.
Download Free PDFSayer, Andrew. 'Critical Realist Methodology: A View from Sweden'. Review of Explaining Society: Critical Realism in the Social Sciences, by Berth Danermark, Mats Ekström, Liselotte Jakobsen, and Jan Ch. Karlsson. Journal of Critical Realism 1.1 (November 2002): 168-170.
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