Stratification is the layering of ontology into the levels of the real, the actual, and the empirical. The real consists of real mechanisms which generate phenomena at the level of the actual, which may or may not be observed at the level of the empirical (SRHE 27). More generally, stratification refers to the simultaneous causal efficacy of different emergent levels (see Emergence). Stratification is associated with a vertical analogy Bhaskar deploys throughout his works and is related to causal structure. Stratification also applies in the transitive domain of knowledge as well as the intransitive domain, such as a piece of knowledge vs. the cognitive structures which generates knowledges by transforming anterior knowledges (SRHE 60).
Differentiation is the existence of open as well as closed systems. Differentiation implies that laws and actions do not have uniform effects, hence the origin of the term. The distinction between mechanisms and the events they generate (or can generate), which is stratification, is necessary to account for why the world is differentiated (RTS 19). Differentiation is associated with a horizontal analogy Bhaskar deploys throughout his work, specifically in regard to the causal efficacy of generative mechanisms in open and closed systems (SRHE 40). Such causal efficacy is termed "transfactual."
Copyright © 1997 Louis Irwin
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