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September 8, 2010
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Causal laws are distinguished from patterns of events. This position relies on the distinction between open and closed systems. The position is established by transcendental argument based on the existence of experimental activity, in which a scientist is a causal agent who interferes with the course of nature" (RTS 54). The empiricist conception views laws as always actualized in empirical regularities. The CR view is that causal laws are real tendencies which may not be manifested (made actual) and typically manifest themselves as empirical regularities only via experimental activity in closed systems artificially created (RR 16-17). From the point of view of causal patterns of events, then, Bhaskar believes that all laws are most honored in the breach.

Copyright © 1997 Louis Irwin

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Abbreviations

All Works by Roy Bhaskar:

  • RTS = A Realist Theory of Science
  • PON = The Possibility of Naturalism
  • SRHE = Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation
  • RR = Reclaiming Reality
  • PIF = Philosophy and the Idea of Freedom
  • DPF = Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom
  • PE = Plato Etc.

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