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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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.
John G. Gunnell
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226661278
- eISBN:
- 9780226661308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226661308.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter explores the problems that have characterized claims about realism in the study of politics. In order to focus the discussion, it analyzes a particular philosophical rendition that has ...
More
This chapter explores the problems that have characterized claims about realism in the study of politics. In order to focus the discussion, it analyzes a particular philosophical rendition that has been derived primarily from the philosophy of natural science and that has at various points surfaced in contemporary social science but recently has been advanced as a basis of theory in the study of international politics.Less
This chapter explores the problems that have characterized claims about realism in the study of politics. In order to focus the discussion, it analyzes a particular philosophical rendition that has been derived primarily from the philosophy of natural science and that has at various points surfaced in contemporary social science but recently has been advanced as a basis of theory in the study of international politics.
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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, ...
More
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?
Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780226602295
- eISBN:
- 9780226786797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226786797.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The initial chapter begins by reconstructing the shared theoretical commitments of a range of realist and anti-realist philosophers. By dialectically working through this putative opposition, the ...
More
The initial chapter begins by reconstructing the shared theoretical commitments of a range of realist and anti-realist philosophers. By dialectically working through this putative opposition, the chapter shows where realism and anti-realism turn into each other. It argues that “real” is primarily a contrastive or negative term, which gains most of its meaning from an opposing concept (e.g., a veggie burger is not real meat but it is real food). It then argues for a vantage beyond both realism and antirealism it dubs “metarealism.” There is a long history of identifying the “real” as mind-independent and in contrast to the social or the mental. Thus, many debates about realism have been haunted by an apocalyptic notion of the real as that which would remain if humans vanished. This clearly poses a problem for scholars in the human sciences—one is left asking if social phenomena are real what are they real in respect to? The chapter answers this by a close analysis of various types of mind-dependence. These types are the key to unlocking different accounts of social construction and, moreover, recognizing them is the first step towards a grand re-theorization of the ontology of the social world.Less
The initial chapter begins by reconstructing the shared theoretical commitments of a range of realist and anti-realist philosophers. By dialectically working through this putative opposition, the chapter shows where realism and anti-realism turn into each other. It argues that “real” is primarily a contrastive or negative term, which gains most of its meaning from an opposing concept (e.g., a veggie burger is not real meat but it is real food). It then argues for a vantage beyond both realism and antirealism it dubs “metarealism.” There is a long history of identifying the “real” as mind-independent and in contrast to the social or the mental. Thus, many debates about realism have been haunted by an apocalyptic notion of the real as that which would remain if humans vanished. This clearly poses a problem for scholars in the human sciences—one is left asking if social phenomena are real what are they real in respect to? The chapter answers this by a close analysis of various types of mind-dependence. These types are the key to unlocking different accounts of social construction and, moreover, recognizing them is the first step towards a grand re-theorization of the ontology of the social world.
Lydia Wysocki
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496828996
- eISBN:
- 9781496829047
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496828996.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter uses three examples of “British comics” taken from a larger empirical project about the connection between comics and discourses of “Britishness,” and aligns these with a Critical ...
More
This chapter uses three examples of “British comics” taken from a larger empirical project about the connection between comics and discourses of “Britishness,” and aligns these with a Critical Realist framework. These are: the normalization of hate in MAC’s Daily Mail cartoon, marginalization in Beano’s "Ball Boy,” and (parodies of) stereotypes in Tillotson and Brookes’ The Manly Boys Annual and Comely Girls Annual. This advances and uses specific social science theoretical and analytical tools for understanding comics as material culture. As such, in the later part of this chapter I make explicit a wider conceptual framework based in sociocultural theory, using this to show how the study of comics can approach larger questions of representation and identity formation.Less
This chapter uses three examples of “British comics” taken from a larger empirical project about the connection between comics and discourses of “Britishness,” and aligns these with a Critical Realist framework. These are: the normalization of hate in MAC’s Daily Mail cartoon, marginalization in Beano’s "Ball Boy,” and (parodies of) stereotypes in Tillotson and Brookes’ The Manly Boys Annual and Comely Girls Annual. This advances and uses specific social science theoretical and analytical tools for understanding comics as material culture. As such, in the later part of this chapter I make explicit a wider conceptual framework based in sociocultural theory, using this to show how the study of comics can approach larger questions of representation and identity formation.
Priscilla Alderson
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447354550
- eISBN:
- 9781447354574
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447354550.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Critical realism, a toolkit of practical ideas, helps researchers to extend, clarify and validate their work. Critical realism resolves problems and contradictions between quantitative factual ...
More
Critical realism, a toolkit of practical ideas, helps researchers to extend, clarify and validate their work. Critical realism resolves problems and contradictions between quantitative factual research and qualitative interpretive approaches. It draws on their strengths, overcomes their limitations, and helps to connect research to policy and practice. To meet growing demand from researchers and students, the book shows how versatile critical realism can be in research across the life course and around the world, from small studies to large trials. Healthcare, health promotion and heath inequalities are all addressed. This book is based on the course at University College London, first taught by Roy Bhaskar the founder of critical realism, and later convened by the author. The aim is to help readers who are new to critical realism, or are in the fairly early stages, with their research across the whole range of health and illness disciplines and professions. Chapters consider relations between structure and agency, facts and values, and between visible evidence and mainly unseen powerful influences on health and illness. Using clear definitions, diagrams and examples, this book enables readers to understand and apply valuable critical realist concepts to health and illness research.Less
Critical realism, a toolkit of practical ideas, helps researchers to extend, clarify and validate their work. Critical realism resolves problems and contradictions between quantitative factual research and qualitative interpretive approaches. It draws on their strengths, overcomes their limitations, and helps to connect research to policy and practice. To meet growing demand from researchers and students, the book shows how versatile critical realism can be in research across the life course and around the world, from small studies to large trials. Healthcare, health promotion and heath inequalities are all addressed. This book is based on the course at University College London, first taught by Roy Bhaskar the founder of critical realism, and later convened by the author. The aim is to help readers who are new to critical realism, or are in the fairly early stages, with their research across the whole range of health and illness disciplines and professions. Chapters consider relations between structure and agency, facts and values, and between visible evidence and mainly unseen powerful influences on health and illness. Using clear definitions, diagrams and examples, this book enables readers to understand and apply valuable critical realist concepts to health and illness research.
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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.
Germán C. Prieto
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529209839
- eISBN:
- 9781529209860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529209839.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Realist constructivism has the potential to offer a stronger account of causation than either classical realism or constructivism on their own. It can combine classical realism’s account of ...
More
Realist constructivism has the potential to offer a stronger account of causation than either classical realism or constructivism on their own. It can combine classical realism’s account of interactionality and rationalism in power politics, in which agency acquires a significant causal role, and constructivism’s account of causal emergence, where social context is analyzed in depth and the causal role of normative structures is highlighted. This account of causality, embedded in a critical realist philosophy of social science, shows that realist constructivist causal argument needs to incorporate interpretivism in order to give better accounts of causation that accounts for the roles of both agency and structure.Less
Realist constructivism has the potential to offer a stronger account of causation than either classical realism or constructivism on their own. It can combine classical realism’s account of interactionality and rationalism in power politics, in which agency acquires a significant causal role, and constructivism’s account of causal emergence, where social context is analyzed in depth and the causal role of normative structures is highlighted. This account of causality, embedded in a critical realist philosophy of social science, shows that realist constructivist causal argument needs to incorporate interpretivism in order to give better accounts of causation that accounts for the roles of both agency and structure.
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 ...
More
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.
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 ...
More
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, ...
More
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.
Andrew R. Hom
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198850014
- eISBN:
- 9780191884474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198850014.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter five addresses key recommendations for how to do IR research. After highlighting the laboratory as a social scientific timing talisman—a place cleansed of the supposedly negative effects of ...
More
Chapter five addresses key recommendations for how to do IR research. After highlighting the laboratory as a social scientific timing talisman—a place cleansed of the supposedly negative effects of time—it juxtaposes this ideal against the methodological precepts of neopositivism, critical realism, and interpretivism. Despite significant diversity, these approaches grapple with time by developing narratives of less “time-bound” realms to help reason from complex and dynamic phenomena to scientifically viable explanations. IR methodologies rely on narrative timing techniques to unfold a realm more intelligible, manageable, and inhabitable than the brute world from which they draw their research puzzles. Indeed, various knowledge warrants depend on this. Treating methodologies as timing proposals upends conventional IR wisdoms, exposing neopositivism as a science fiction predicated on time travel, critical realism as a brand of theology, and interpretivism as an empirical and realistic approach to social scientific inquiry.Less
Chapter five addresses key recommendations for how to do IR research. After highlighting the laboratory as a social scientific timing talisman—a place cleansed of the supposedly negative effects of time—it juxtaposes this ideal against the methodological precepts of neopositivism, critical realism, and interpretivism. Despite significant diversity, these approaches grapple with time by developing narratives of less “time-bound” realms to help reason from complex and dynamic phenomena to scientifically viable explanations. IR methodologies rely on narrative timing techniques to unfold a realm more intelligible, manageable, and inhabitable than the brute world from which they draw their research puzzles. Indeed, various knowledge warrants depend on this. Treating methodologies as timing proposals upends conventional IR wisdoms, exposing neopositivism as a science fiction predicated on time travel, critical realism as a brand of theology, and interpretivism as an empirical and realistic approach to social scientific inquiry.
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 ...
More
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.
