Gloria L. Schaab
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195329124
- eISBN:
- 9780199785711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329124.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Chapter 3 addresses the question of how theology in dialogue with science authentically expresses insights concerning the ineffable mystery of God and suffering. Because neither science nor theology ...
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Chapter 3 addresses the question of how theology in dialogue with science authentically expresses insights concerning the ineffable mystery of God and suffering. Because neither science nor theology can speak uncritically as if a one‐to‐one correspondence existed between the meaning of their words and the realities to which they refer, nor can they speak instrumentally as if their words were simply useful fictions, each discipline must speak in terms of a critical or skeptical realism. In so doing, each employs certain concepts, analogies, metaphors, or models to signify something akin to the entity to which its words refer. This approach to scientific and theological language leads to the methodology of inference‐to‐the‐best‐explanation. This methodology aims not at certainty but at intelligibility, not at finality but at fecundity, not at immutability but at emergence with regard to its metaphors and models.Less
Chapter 3 addresses the question of how theology in dialogue with science authentically expresses insights concerning the ineffable mystery of God and suffering. Because neither science nor theology can speak uncritically as if a one‐to‐one correspondence existed between the meaning of their words and the realities to which they refer, nor can they speak instrumentally as if their words were simply useful fictions, each discipline must speak in terms of a critical or skeptical realism. In so doing, each employs certain concepts, analogies, metaphors, or models to signify something akin to the entity to which its words refer. This approach to scientific and theological language leads to the methodology of inference‐to‐the‐best‐explanation. This methodology aims not at certainty but at intelligibility, not at finality but at fecundity, not at immutability but at emergence with regard to its metaphors and models.
Jeffrey Longhofer, Jerry Floersch, and Janet Hoy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195398472
- eISBN:
- 9780199979325
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398472.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
Qualitative methods have become increasingly popular among researchers in the professions: social work, nursing, education, business, computer science, and occupational therapy. And while many ...
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Qualitative methods have become increasingly popular among researchers in the professions: social work, nursing, education, business, computer science, and occupational therapy. And while many comprehensive textbooks (in sociology, anthropology and psychology) describe the standard techniques and philosophical assumptions, when the audience is broadened to include practitioners, it is often assumed that practitioners are the consumers of research, not the producers. This book uses qualitative methods to engage practitioners as knowledge producers. In particular, theory-to-practice gaps are described as indispensable conditions for conducting research that matters in worlds of practice. Practitioners are encouraged to lead research by conducting engaged scholarship, which promotes collaboration between practitioners and researchers to address practice-related problems in real world settings. Whereas reductionist methods assume that practice unfolds in closed systems, where variables can be manipulated and controlled or used to predict, the argument developed in this work, using critical realist philosophy, supports the idea that practice takes place in complex open systems. This, in turn, requires a specific practice-to-research vocabulary: brute and institutional facts, contingency and necessity, essentialism, and the phenomenological practice gap. Engaged scholarship and critical realist assumptions are applied to three case studies that combine research questions with data collection techniques and analytic strategies. Thematic, grounded theory, and narrative research techniques are illustrated, including original quick-start instructions for using ATLAS.ti computer software. Institutional ethnography is described, and a case study is used to illustrate the influence of policy implementation on clinical practice.Less
Qualitative methods have become increasingly popular among researchers in the professions: social work, nursing, education, business, computer science, and occupational therapy. And while many comprehensive textbooks (in sociology, anthropology and psychology) describe the standard techniques and philosophical assumptions, when the audience is broadened to include practitioners, it is often assumed that practitioners are the consumers of research, not the producers. This book uses qualitative methods to engage practitioners as knowledge producers. In particular, theory-to-practice gaps are described as indispensable conditions for conducting research that matters in worlds of practice. Practitioners are encouraged to lead research by conducting engaged scholarship, which promotes collaboration between practitioners and researchers to address practice-related problems in real world settings. Whereas reductionist methods assume that practice unfolds in closed systems, where variables can be manipulated and controlled or used to predict, the argument developed in this work, using critical realist philosophy, supports the idea that practice takes place in complex open systems. This, in turn, requires a specific practice-to-research vocabulary: brute and institutional facts, contingency and necessity, essentialism, and the phenomenological practice gap. Engaged scholarship and critical realist assumptions are applied to three case studies that combine research questions with data collection techniques and analytic strategies. Thematic, grounded theory, and narrative research techniques are illustrated, including original quick-start instructions for using ATLAS.ti computer software. Institutional ethnography is described, and a case study is used to illustrate the influence of policy implementation on clinical practice.
Paul Coates
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199573301
- eISBN:
- 9780191722172
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573301.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics/Epistemology
In an important late essay, ‘The Role of the Imagination in Kant's Theory of Experience’, Sellars brings together ideas about the complex nature of perceptual consciousness and the content of ...
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In an important late essay, ‘The Role of the Imagination in Kant's Theory of Experience’, Sellars brings together ideas about the complex nature of perceptual consciousness and the content of perceptual demonstratives. In a development of his previous ideas about perception, he clarifies the key role played by the imagination in unifying the conceptual and sensory (or phenomenal) components of perceptual consciousness. This chapter proposes a modification of Sellars's views on the imagination, and shows how the resulting conception can explain the different ways in which experiences can be conceptualized. The account enables us to understand exactly how, according to the Sellarsian critical realist analysis of experience, we are able to make demonstrative judgments about physical objects, while avoiding a problematic appeal to neo-Russellian notions of acquaintance.Less
In an important late essay, ‘The Role of the Imagination in Kant's Theory of Experience’, Sellars brings together ideas about the complex nature of perceptual consciousness and the content of perceptual demonstratives. In a development of his previous ideas about perception, he clarifies the key role played by the imagination in unifying the conceptual and sensory (or phenomenal) components of perceptual consciousness. This chapter proposes a modification of Sellars's views on the imagination, and shows how the resulting conception can explain the different ways in which experiences can be conceptualized. The account enables us to understand exactly how, according to the Sellarsian critical realist analysis of experience, we are able to make demonstrative judgments about physical objects, while avoiding a problematic appeal to neo-Russellian notions of acquaintance.
Bruce Kuklick
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199260164
- eISBN:
- 9780191597893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199260168.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Of equal importance as the development of pragmatism and instrumentalism, although more narrowly and professionally focused, was the development of realism, a view that argued for the independent ...
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Of equal importance as the development of pragmatism and instrumentalism, although more narrowly and professionally focused, was the development of realism, a view that argued for the independent existence of the material world in space and time. This movement began in the first decade of the twentieth century led by Harvard's neo‐realist, Ralph Perry. It continued with the more significant Critical Realists of the second decade of the century—George Santayana, Arthur Lovejoy, and Roy Wood Sellars. C.I. Lewis, the most important inter‐war philosopher and another Harvard professor, known for his conceptual pragmatism, also embraced realistic ideas. In the second half of the century, Wilfrid Sellars influentially defended this point of view.Less
Of equal importance as the development of pragmatism and instrumentalism, although more narrowly and professionally focused, was the development of realism, a view that argued for the independent existence of the material world in space and time. This movement began in the first decade of the twentieth century led by Harvard's neo‐realist, Ralph Perry. It continued with the more significant Critical Realists of the second decade of the century—George Santayana, Arthur Lovejoy, and Roy Wood Sellars. C.I. Lewis, the most important inter‐war philosopher and another Harvard professor, known for his conceptual pragmatism, also embraced realistic ideas. In the second half of the century, Wilfrid Sellars influentially defended this point of view.
Jeffrey Longhofer, Jerry Floersch, and Janet Hoy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195398472
- eISBN:
- 9780199979325
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398472.003.0002
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
Critical realism is a philosophy of social science that uniquely frames practice problems within complex open systems. Practitioners are discouraged from research that attempts to predict outcomes by ...
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Critical realism is a philosophy of social science that uniquely frames practice problems within complex open systems. Practitioners are discouraged from research that attempts to predict outcomes by carefully controlling variables, a type of research called variables-based research. Qualitative research is also uniquely formulated to conduct open system research. The chapter defines the basic concepts of a critical realist philosophy. Engaged scholarship as a research approach is explicated and integrated within a critical realist framework. Open practice systems create phenomenological practice gaps and practitioners are encouraged to identify gaps, organize qualitative research projects, and conduct research that is informed by critical realism.Less
Critical realism is a philosophy of social science that uniquely frames practice problems within complex open systems. Practitioners are discouraged from research that attempts to predict outcomes by carefully controlling variables, a type of research called variables-based research. Qualitative research is also uniquely formulated to conduct open system research. The chapter defines the basic concepts of a critical realist philosophy. Engaged scholarship as a research approach is explicated and integrated within a critical realist framework. Open practice systems create phenomenological practice gaps and practitioners are encouraged to identify gaps, organize qualitative research projects, and conduct research that is informed by critical realism.
Jason A. Springs
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395044
- eISBN:
- 9780199866243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395044.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The first part of chapter 4 addresses several of the most pressing critical challenges to Frei's work leveled by evangelical theologians. The first is that he forgoes all concern for whether or not ...
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The first part of chapter 4 addresses several of the most pressing critical challenges to Frei's work leveled by evangelical theologians. The first is that he forgoes all concern for whether or not the biblical accounts of Jesus do, in fact, truly correspond to actual historical events. The second is that Frei reduces the biblical witness to a self-contained literary world. The second part of chapter 4 reassesses the Barthian dimensions of Frei's work in light of the potentially devastating criticism that Frei's reading of Karl Barth is decidedly undialectical, inordinately stressing the role of analogy therein, and that this deficiency has been transmitted to many of the so-called "American neo-Barthians" (or "postliberals") influenced by Frei. The argument critically retrieves material from Frei's dissertation, his earliest publications, and recently circulated material from his unpublished archival papers in order to make the case that Frei identified a complex interrelation of dialectic and analogy in Barth's theology dating back as far as the second edition of Barth's Romans commentary and reaching forward into the Church Dogmatics.Less
The first part of chapter 4 addresses several of the most pressing critical challenges to Frei's work leveled by evangelical theologians. The first is that he forgoes all concern for whether or not the biblical accounts of Jesus do, in fact, truly correspond to actual historical events. The second is that Frei reduces the biblical witness to a self-contained literary world. The second part of chapter 4 reassesses the Barthian dimensions of Frei's work in light of the potentially devastating criticism that Frei's reading of Karl Barth is decidedly undialectical, inordinately stressing the role of analogy therein, and that this deficiency has been transmitted to many of the so-called "American neo-Barthians" (or "postliberals") influenced by Frei. The argument critically retrieves material from Frei's dissertation, his earliest publications, and recently circulated material from his unpublished archival papers in order to make the case that Frei identified a complex interrelation of dialectic and analogy in Barth's theology dating back as far as the second edition of Barth's Romans commentary and reaching forward into the Church Dogmatics.
Daniel J. Levine
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199916061
- eISBN:
- 9780199980246
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199916061.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
From conceptual discussions of reification to historical case studies: the next three chapters explore how different communities of IR theorists have understood the challenge of sustainable critique, ...
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From conceptual discussions of reification to historical case studies: the next three chapters explore how different communities of IR theorists have understood the challenge of sustainable critique, and tried to meet it. Is there a coherent pattern to their failures and successes? In particular, Chapter 3 focuses on the realist tradition: from Morgenthau and Waltz to the ‘neoclassical,’ ‘constructivist’ and ‘critical’ developments of the past decade. Why, despite a distinctly reflective ethos, did Hans Morgenthau fail to develop a body of theory that could resist reification? Why did Waltz’s critics fail to appreciate those moves toward reflexivity that existed in structuralism, and why did those moves themselves prove insufficient? How do those failures continue to affect contemporary realist research, from Randall Schweller to Richard Ned Lebow and Michael C. Williams?Less
From conceptual discussions of reification to historical case studies: the next three chapters explore how different communities of IR theorists have understood the challenge of sustainable critique, and tried to meet it. Is there a coherent pattern to their failures and successes? In particular, Chapter 3 focuses on the realist tradition: from Morgenthau and Waltz to the ‘neoclassical,’ ‘constructivist’ and ‘critical’ developments of the past decade. Why, despite a distinctly reflective ethos, did Hans Morgenthau fail to develop a body of theory that could resist reification? Why did Waltz’s critics fail to appreciate those moves toward reflexivity that existed in structuralism, and why did those moves themselves prove insufficient? How do those failures continue to affect contemporary realist research, from Randall Schweller to Richard Ned Lebow and Michael C. Williams?
Douglas V. Porpora
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134919
- eISBN:
- 9780199834563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134915.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Examines how our sense of reality, in general, and religious reality, in particular, are established within community. Certain religious experiences, it is argued, are possible only within certain ...
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Examines how our sense of reality, in general, and religious reality, in particular, are established within community. Certain religious experiences, it is argued, are possible only within certain communally established frames of reality. Relativism and skepticism about ultimate truth are nonetheless to be resisted. Following the philosophical perspective of critical realism, it is argued that objective truth can be ascertained – if always provisionally – through the process of argument that is itself a community or intercommunity endeavor.Less
Examines how our sense of reality, in general, and religious reality, in particular, are established within community. Certain religious experiences, it is argued, are possible only within certain communally established frames of reality. Relativism and skepticism about ultimate truth are nonetheless to be resisted. Following the philosophical perspective of critical realism, it is argued that objective truth can be ascertained – if always provisionally – through the process of argument that is itself a community or intercommunity endeavor.
Ian Aitken
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719070006
- eISBN:
- 9781781700884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719070006.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the influence of the naturalist tradition on early French cinema, covering the pictorialist naturalist school of the 1920s, the cycles of Zola adaptations that appeared between ...
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This chapter discusses the influence of the naturalist tradition on early French cinema, covering the pictorialist naturalist school of the 1920s, the cycles of Zola adaptations that appeared between 1902 and 1938, and the ‘social-realist’ cinema of Renoir. The categorical map of the significant realist French film production of the 1930–8 period is meant to be neither exhaustive nor definitive. The chapter emphasizes that La Bête humaine focuses on a disturbing and morally corrupt social order, which conforms closely to one of the most important features of the critical realist/naturalist tradition in its employment of an indeterminate aesthetic style. It concludes by accounting for Renoir's La Bête humaine in terms of the model of critical realism.Less
This chapter discusses the influence of the naturalist tradition on early French cinema, covering the pictorialist naturalist school of the 1920s, the cycles of Zola adaptations that appeared between 1902 and 1938, and the ‘social-realist’ cinema of Renoir. The categorical map of the significant realist French film production of the 1930–8 period is meant to be neither exhaustive nor definitive. The chapter emphasizes that La Bête humaine focuses on a disturbing and morally corrupt social order, which conforms closely to one of the most important features of the critical realist/naturalist tradition in its employment of an indeterminate aesthetic style. It concludes by accounting for Renoir's La Bête humaine in terms of the model of critical realism.
Christian Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226231952
- eISBN:
- 9780226232003
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226232003.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
This book advances a personalist account of human beings to help us better understand and explain human persons, motivations, interests, and the social life to which they give rise. It offers an ...
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This book advances a personalist account of human beings to help us better understand and explain human persons, motivations, interests, and the social life to which they give rise. It offers an alternative to the standard views in contemporary sociology and most of the rest of social science. This book seeks to answer three big questions: What basic motivations and interests generate and direct human action? What is by nature good for human beings—that is, what are real human goods? How should we understand and explain the lack of goodness—sometimes even the definite destructiveness and evil—that are so prevalent and damaging in human life? Stated differently, this book seeks to better theorize the micro-foundations of social life, yet not from the rational-choice perspective that has dominated micro-foundations discourse. Altogether, the chapters make a case for the need to take seriously the reality and nature of subjective human motivations for generating action, to resist problematic versions of social situationism, to define carefully the relationship between distinct persons and their social environments, to identify which goods are by nature basic to human life, to develop a teleological account of human flourishing that defines objective human interests, and to understand how the natural human telos of flourishing can be compromised and destroyed by failure, destruction, and evil. It is guided by critical realism and by a broadly neo-Aristotelian view of human life as theoretical frameworks.Less
This book advances a personalist account of human beings to help us better understand and explain human persons, motivations, interests, and the social life to which they give rise. It offers an alternative to the standard views in contemporary sociology and most of the rest of social science. This book seeks to answer three big questions: What basic motivations and interests generate and direct human action? What is by nature good for human beings—that is, what are real human goods? How should we understand and explain the lack of goodness—sometimes even the definite destructiveness and evil—that are so prevalent and damaging in human life? Stated differently, this book seeks to better theorize the micro-foundations of social life, yet not from the rational-choice perspective that has dominated micro-foundations discourse. Altogether, the chapters make a case for the need to take seriously the reality and nature of subjective human motivations for generating action, to resist problematic versions of social situationism, to define carefully the relationship between distinct persons and their social environments, to identify which goods are by nature basic to human life, to develop a teleological account of human flourishing that defines objective human interests, and to understand how the natural human telos of flourishing can be compromised and destroyed by failure, destruction, and evil. It is guided by critical realism and by a broadly neo-Aristotelian view of human life as theoretical frameworks.
ALAN NORRIE
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198259565
- eISBN:
- 9780191710636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259565.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter examines the nature of a critical approach to criminal justice. The three different kinds of critique present in Alan Norrie's work are discussed and related to the argument in his ...
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This chapter examines the nature of a critical approach to criminal justice. The three different kinds of critique present in Alan Norrie's work are discussed and related to the argument in his previous work, particularly Crime, Reason and History. A brief practical illustration of the way in which these critiques distinguish Norrie's approach from a modern revisionist account in the orthodox subjectivist tradition, that of Andrew Ashworth, is provided. The criticisms against Norrie's approach is related to the dialectical and anti-Kantian themes of his present argument. Norrie's approach is then related to a critique to the development of a critical tradition that includes Immanuel Kant, when understood as a critical philosopher, Georg Hegel, and, most recently, Roy Bhaskar. In a brief and necessarily limited sketch, this chapter describes Kant's relation to dialectical philosophy, and the dialectical inheritance he and Hegel passed down to Bhaskar's modern reworking. Punishment, criminal law, critical realism, and Kantian criminal justice thinking are also discussed.Less
This chapter examines the nature of a critical approach to criminal justice. The three different kinds of critique present in Alan Norrie's work are discussed and related to the argument in his previous work, particularly Crime, Reason and History. A brief practical illustration of the way in which these critiques distinguish Norrie's approach from a modern revisionist account in the orthodox subjectivist tradition, that of Andrew Ashworth, is provided. The criticisms against Norrie's approach is related to the dialectical and anti-Kantian themes of his present argument. Norrie's approach is then related to a critique to the development of a critical tradition that includes Immanuel Kant, when understood as a critical philosopher, Georg Hegel, and, most recently, Roy Bhaskar. In a brief and necessarily limited sketch, this chapter describes Kant's relation to dialectical philosophy, and the dialectical inheritance he and Hegel passed down to Bhaskar's modern reworking. Punishment, criminal law, critical realism, and Kantian criminal justice thinking are also discussed.
ALAN NORRIE
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198259565
- eISBN:
- 9780191710636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198259565.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter argues that the traditional Hegelian desire to ‘rationalise the real’, and thereby to resolve the problems of law via dialectical method, must be rejected. A dialectical approach, ...
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This chapter argues that the traditional Hegelian desire to ‘rationalise the real’, and thereby to resolve the problems of law via dialectical method, must be rejected. A dialectical approach, properly employed, reveals law's continuing historical and structural problems. Nonetheless, Georg Hegel's dialectical understanding of the limits of analytical reasoning, described and explained in this chapter as identity thinking, remains a crucial staging post. Hegel's dialectic is followed, and then transcended in favour of Roy Bhaskar's approach. This chapter outlines the opposition between analytical ('identity') thinking and dialectical (‘entity relational’) thinking, and explains, using Hegel, how the dialectical critique works for criminal justice. Bhaskar's entity relationism and dialectical critical realism are discussed, along with false separation in Immanuel Kant's morality of form and the limits of an analytical model of legal reasoning.Less
This chapter argues that the traditional Hegelian desire to ‘rationalise the real’, and thereby to resolve the problems of law via dialectical method, must be rejected. A dialectical approach, properly employed, reveals law's continuing historical and structural problems. Nonetheless, Georg Hegel's dialectical understanding of the limits of analytical reasoning, described and explained in this chapter as identity thinking, remains a crucial staging post. Hegel's dialectic is followed, and then transcended in favour of Roy Bhaskar's approach. This chapter outlines the opposition between analytical ('identity') thinking and dialectical (‘entity relational’) thinking, and explains, using Hegel, how the dialectical critique works for criminal justice. Bhaskar's entity relationism and dialectical critical realism are discussed, along with false separation in Immanuel Kant's morality of form and the limits of an analytical model of legal reasoning.
Christian Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226231952
- eISBN:
- 9780226232003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226232003.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
In the introduction, the author presents the motivations behind the book’s inquiry: the need to make good sense of life and the world, the need to find a correct approach to human beings that will ...
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In the introduction, the author presents the motivations behind the book’s inquiry: the need to make good sense of life and the world, the need to find a correct approach to human beings that will look at what is “good”, not necessarily what is “right”, which is the main concern in social science recently. The chapter explains five models of human beings, classifies them as inadequate and then introduces critical realist personlism as the correct, realistic and theoretically coherent view. The chapter explores the advantages personalism brings to sociological theory, one of the most important being that it brings together the two sides of humanity, the light and the dark, into one coherent picture, and also emphasizes the importance of ontology. The chapter ends by considering the book as a work of retrieval of the reality of a natural human good and a real human telos.Less
In the introduction, the author presents the motivations behind the book’s inquiry: the need to make good sense of life and the world, the need to find a correct approach to human beings that will look at what is “good”, not necessarily what is “right”, which is the main concern in social science recently. The chapter explains five models of human beings, classifies them as inadequate and then introduces critical realist personlism as the correct, realistic and theoretically coherent view. The chapter explores the advantages personalism brings to sociological theory, one of the most important being that it brings together the two sides of humanity, the light and the dark, into one coherent picture, and also emphasizes the importance of ontology. The chapter ends by considering the book as a work of retrieval of the reality of a natural human good and a real human telos.
Caroline Franks Davis
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198250012
- eISBN:
- 9780191681233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198250012.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Many philosophers and theologians who are themselves religious see religious experiences as completely non-cognitive and hence useless as evidence for anything beyond the subject's own psychological ...
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Many philosophers and theologians who are themselves religious see religious experiences as completely non-cognitive and hence useless as evidence for anything beyond the subject's own psychological states. This view is usually bound up with a radically demythologised or non-realist picture of religious language. In order to investigate religious experience as evidence for something beyond purely autobiographical claims, it is important to defend the presupposition that religious experiences and religious utterances can and ought to be treated as capable of having cognitive content. This chapter examines the views of those who are sympathetic to religion and who yet maintain that religious utterances are not intended to be factual assertions. The role of models and metaphors in describing religious experience is also discussed.Less
Many philosophers and theologians who are themselves religious see religious experiences as completely non-cognitive and hence useless as evidence for anything beyond the subject's own psychological states. This view is usually bound up with a radically demythologised or non-realist picture of religious language. In order to investigate religious experience as evidence for something beyond purely autobiographical claims, it is important to defend the presupposition that religious experiences and religious utterances can and ought to be treated as capable of having cognitive content. This chapter examines the views of those who are sympathetic to religion and who yet maintain that religious utterances are not intended to be factual assertions. The role of models and metaphors in describing religious experience is also discussed.
John Brekke, Jeane Anastas, Jerry Floersch, and Jeffrey Longhofer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190880668
- eISBN:
- 9780190880699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190880668.003.0002
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
Any definition of social work science must make its philosophy of science manifest. While not the only ones in social work to espouse realism, especially critical realism, the IslandWood Group used ...
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Any definition of social work science must make its philosophy of science manifest. While not the only ones in social work to espouse realism, especially critical realism, the IslandWood Group used key ideas from this school of thought to guide many discussions. The main tenets of scientific realism are described followed by a description of some key features of critical realism. Basic tenets of the realisms include the existence of a mind-independent reality, the existence of the unseen, upward and downward causation, stratified reality, emergence, the embrace of multiple methodologies, and the importance of theory in science. This epistemological and ontological stance differs from positivist and behaviorist approaches. The chapter concludes with a summary of other frameworks—pragmatism, constructionism, and critical theories—that are also relevant to a science of social work.Less
Any definition of social work science must make its philosophy of science manifest. While not the only ones in social work to espouse realism, especially critical realism, the IslandWood Group used key ideas from this school of thought to guide many discussions. The main tenets of scientific realism are described followed by a description of some key features of critical realism. Basic tenets of the realisms include the existence of a mind-independent reality, the existence of the unseen, upward and downward causation, stratified reality, emergence, the embrace of multiple methodologies, and the importance of theory in science. This epistemological and ontological stance differs from positivist and behaviorist approaches. The chapter concludes with a summary of other frameworks—pragmatism, constructionism, and critical theories—that are also relevant to a science of social work.
Catriona Kelly
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159643
- eISBN:
- 9780191673665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Olga Shapir can be considered as a ‘typical’ 19th-century writer. Although she was prolific, she is now posthumously forgotten. However, Shapir's novel, The Stormy Years, shows a brave attempt to ...
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Olga Shapir can be considered as a ‘typical’ 19th-century writer. Although she was prolific, she is now posthumously forgotten. However, Shapir's novel, The Stormy Years, shows a brave attempt to combine an analysis of revolutionary politics with a critical overview of sexual possibilities. This chapter discusses Shapir's autobiography and ‘The Settlement’, a 19th-century critical realism story, in detail. It can be determined that Shapir's story was able to represent gender and class relations as both inflexible and variable.Less
Olga Shapir can be considered as a ‘typical’ 19th-century writer. Although she was prolific, she is now posthumously forgotten. However, Shapir's novel, The Stormy Years, shows a brave attempt to combine an analysis of revolutionary politics with a critical overview of sexual possibilities. This chapter discusses Shapir's autobiography and ‘The Settlement’, a 19th-century critical realism story, in detail. It can be determined that Shapir's story was able to represent gender and class relations as both inflexible and variable.
Jeane Anastas
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190880668
- eISBN:
- 9780190880699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190880668.003.0008
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
An aspect of proposing a definition of a science of social work is defining the domains that it should or could address. Critical realism calls for examining and critiquing the social arrangements ...
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An aspect of proposing a definition of a science of social work is defining the domains that it should or could address. Critical realism calls for examining and critiquing the social arrangements that frame our science and our knowledge. Like social work itself, it aspires to be an emancipatory project. The concept of embodiment from philosophy of mind is introduced; it suggests that a mind, whether the same or different from a brain, is embedded in the organism, the social world, the cultural world that includes the historical, and the ecological world. This framework has implications for understanding how we know and what we need to know. Embodiment is a concept that can be used in defining the scope and concerns of social work science.Less
An aspect of proposing a definition of a science of social work is defining the domains that it should or could address. Critical realism calls for examining and critiquing the social arrangements that frame our science and our knowledge. Like social work itself, it aspires to be an emancipatory project. The concept of embodiment from philosophy of mind is introduced; it suggests that a mind, whether the same or different from a brain, is embedded in the organism, the social world, the cultural world that includes the historical, and the ecological world. This framework has implications for understanding how we know and what we need to know. Embodiment is a concept that can be used in defining the scope and concerns of social work science.
Chris Rees and Mark Gatenby
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199665525
- eISBN:
- 9780191771637
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665525.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This chapter explains how ethnographic enquiry can be strengthened through recourse to the ontological assumptions of critical realism. It also looks in the opposite direction to consider how ...
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This chapter explains how ethnographic enquiry can be strengthened through recourse to the ontological assumptions of critical realism. It also looks in the opposite direction to consider how critical realist researchers can benefit from utilizing ethnography as a means of initiating the ‘retroductive journey’. The chapter provides a broad overview of the core tenets of ethnography, considers how particular developments in the ethnographic tradition—from phenomenology and postmodernism—have challenged some of its founding principles, argues that ethnography now needs to find a way to deal more adequately with social structure, and suggests that critical realism offers a fruitful way forward in this respect. These arguments are illustrated with reference to the study of work and organizations.Less
This chapter explains how ethnographic enquiry can be strengthened through recourse to the ontological assumptions of critical realism. It also looks in the opposite direction to consider how critical realist researchers can benefit from utilizing ethnography as a means of initiating the ‘retroductive journey’. The chapter provides a broad overview of the core tenets of ethnography, considers how particular developments in the ethnographic tradition—from phenomenology and postmodernism—have challenged some of its founding principles, argues that ethnography now needs to find a way to deal more adequately with social structure, and suggests that critical realism offers a fruitful way forward in this respect. These arguments are illustrated with reference to the study of work and organizations.
Jonathan Bignell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719064203
- eISBN:
- 9781781701867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719064203.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter discusses the formation of and the critical response to a canon of British television drama in terms of a conflict between aesthetic modernism and critical realism. It notes that some of ...
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This chapter discusses the formation of and the critical response to a canon of British television drama in terms of a conflict between aesthetic modernism and critical realism. It notes that some of the critics' responses to Beckett's work in the 1970s reflected the critical debate of the time over the politics of naturalistic versus avant-garde form. It determines that Beckett's television plays are placed within a complex dialectic of critical discourses around the aesthetics and politics of television drama, and part of this debate is about the address to the television audience. Finally, this chapter tries to link critical work on Beckett's television plays with discursive models of how television audiences were imagined by critics, television institutions and authors.Less
This chapter discusses the formation of and the critical response to a canon of British television drama in terms of a conflict between aesthetic modernism and critical realism. It notes that some of the critics' responses to Beckett's work in the 1970s reflected the critical debate of the time over the politics of naturalistic versus avant-garde form. It determines that Beckett's television plays are placed within a complex dialectic of critical discourses around the aesthetics and politics of television drama, and part of this debate is about the address to the television audience. Finally, this chapter tries to link critical work on Beckett's television plays with discursive models of how television audiences were imagined by critics, television institutions and authors.
Christian Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226231952
- eISBN:
- 9780226232003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226232003.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
This chapter expands on the basics of personalist theory. It clarifies that critical realist personalism’s center and touchstone is the human person. Then, basic beliefs underlying personalist theory ...
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This chapter expands on the basics of personalist theory. It clarifies that critical realist personalism’s center and touchstone is the human person. Then, basic beliefs underlying personalist theory are explained, such that human persons are real entities with ontological being that exist in nature, that social structures and societies are not prioritized analytically or morally over persons, that humans are constitutionally social by nature. The ontology and emergence of personhood are established. The purpose of the chapter is to emphasize the importance of centering human persons and to lay down some ideas needed to understand the further chapters. It says that persons also account for the immense goodness and evil that is evident in human social life, so if we want to understand and explain human social life well, we have to come to grips with persons.Less
This chapter expands on the basics of personalist theory. It clarifies that critical realist personalism’s center and touchstone is the human person. Then, basic beliefs underlying personalist theory are explained, such that human persons are real entities with ontological being that exist in nature, that social structures and societies are not prioritized analytically or morally over persons, that humans are constitutionally social by nature. The ontology and emergence of personhood are established. The purpose of the chapter is to emphasize the importance of centering human persons and to lay down some ideas needed to understand the further chapters. It says that persons also account for the immense goodness and evil that is evident in human social life, so if we want to understand and explain human social life well, we have to come to grips with persons.
