Bhaskar understands this term in two Kantian strands: an immanent metaphysics primarily concerned with what our knowledge presupposes about reality, and a descriptive metaphysics concerned with the conceptual frameworks in terms of which reality is thought (SRHE 10-11, 21). It is important to keep in mind that Bhaskar views knowledge in a very practical manner, so an immanent metaphysics analyzes what our existing conceptual practices presuppose about the world (see Critique and Transcendental Argument), while a descriptive metaphysics analyzes the categories deployed in those conceptual practices.
Unlike Kant, who thought geometry, for example, was an immanent feature of our conceptual structure, Bhaskar holds that a descriptive metaphysics cannot be derived from an immanent metaphysics. Bhaskar sees immanent metaphysics as an "underlaborer" for social practices ranging from scientific activity to emancipatory practices. Descriptive metaphysics can "decode and decipher the conceptual schemes informing those practices" (SRHE 22).
Copyright © 1997 Louis Irwin
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