scholarly journals Of Babies and Bathwater. A Review of Tuukka Kaidesoja Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-331
Author(s):  
Dave Elder-Vass
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Transcendental Argument ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Realist Ontology

AbstractTuukka Kaidesoja’s new book is a welcome addition to the literature on critical realism. He shows good judgement in defending Roy Bhaskar’s argument for causal powers while criticising its framing as a transcendental argument. In criticising Bhaskar’s concept of a real-but-not-actual ontological domain, however, he discards an essential element of a realist ontology, even a naturalised one: a recognition of the transfactual aspect of causal power.

scholarly journals Fallibilism and Ontology in Tuukka Kaidesoja’s Critical Realist Social Ontology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Little
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Naturalistic Approach ◽  
The Social

AbstractThis article addresses Tuukka Kaidesoja’s critique of the philosophical presuppositions of Roy Bhaskar’s theories of critical realism. The article supports Kaidesoja’s naturalistic approach to the philosophy of the social sciences, including the field of social ontology. The article discusses the specific topics of fallibilism, emergence, and causal powers. I conclude that Kaidesoja’s book is a valuable contribution to current debates over critical realism.

scholarly journals Comment on Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petri Ylikoski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Transcendental Arguments ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Argumentative Strategy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Realist Ontology

AbstractThis comment discusses Kaidesoja (2013) and raises the issue whether his analysis justifies stronger conclusions than he presents in the book. My comments focus on four issues. First, I argue that his naturalistic reconstruction of critical realist transcendental arguments shows that transcendental arguments should be treated as a rare curiosity rather than a general argumentative strategy. Second, I suggest that Kaidesoja’s analysis does not really justify his optimism about the usefulness of causal powers ontology in the social sciences. Third, I raise some doubts about the heuristic value of Mario Bunge’s social ontology that Kaidesoja presents as a replacement for critical realist ontology. Finally, I propose an alternative way to analyze failures of aggregativity that might better serve Kaidesoja’s purposes than the Wimsattian scheme he employs in the book.

scholarly journals Uncertainty, Possibility, and Causal Power in QCA

2021 ◽  
pp. 004912412110312
Author(s):  
Roel Rutten
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Regularity Theory ◽  
Truth Table ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Table Analysis ◽  
Analysis Models ◽  
Better Than

Uncertainty undermines causal claims; however, the nature of causal claims decides what counts as relevant uncertainty. Empirical robustness is imperative in regularity theories of causality. Regularity theory features strongly in QCA, making its case sensitivity a weakness. Following qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) founder Charles Ragin’s emphasis on ontological realism, this article suggests causality as a power and thus breaks with the ontological determinism of regularity theories. Exercising causal powers makes it possible for human agents to achieve an outcome but does not determine that they will. The article explains how QCA’s truth table analysis “models” possibilistic uncertainty and how crisp sets do this better than fuzzy sets. Causal power is at the heart of critical realist philosophy of science. Like Ragin, critical realism suggests empirical analysis as merely describing underlying causal relationships. Empirical statements must be substantively interpreted into causal claims. The article is critical of “empiricist” QCA that infers causality from the robustness of set relationships.

An Ontology of Capitalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Zoe Adams
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Historical Specificity ◽  
Ontological Framework ◽  
Realist Ontology

This chapter develops an ontological framework through which to explore law’s relationship with capitalist social relations. It draws on insights from critical realism, before developing its ontology through an engagement with the immanent social critique associated with Marx’s Capital. The first section introduces critical realism and its theory of social reality and explains what we can take away from this theory for the purposes of law and legal analysis. This section focuses specifically on how critical realism can contribute to our understanding of the nature, and origins, of social structures and how they influence human behaviour. The second section makes some suggestions about how to refine the critical realist ontology, with a particular focus on the importance of exploring the historical specificity of particular forms of society, and relatedly, of the concepts and categories that are intrinsic to them. Drawing on Marx’s mature critical theory, the third section uses the insights from the previous sections to explore in detail the basic structure of capitalism and to identify and explain the emergence of its constitutive categories before teasing out the implications of this analysis for our understanding of law’s ‘constitutive’ role—the various functions it performs in the context of capitalism. The analysis in this chapter will lay the groundwork for a more detailed analysis of the legal form in Chapter 3.

Online Role-playing Games and the Definition of Theatre

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-359
Author(s):  
Tobin Nellhaus
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Theatre Historiography

Online role-playing games are a form of entertainment in which players create characters and improvisationally perform scenes together within a digital virtual world. It has many theatre-like aspects, which raises the question of whether it is in fact a form of theatre. To answer that question, however, one must first have a definition of theatre – an issue with disciplinary consequences – and in this article Tobin Nellhaus develops a definition founded on social ontology, suggesting that theatrical performance, unlike other social practices, replicates society's ontology. From that perspective, online role-playing meets the definition of theatre. But its digital environment raises another set of problems, since embodiment, space, and presence in online role-playing are necessarily unlike what we experience in traditional theatre. Here, Nellhaus brings these three aspects of performance together through the concept of embodied social presence, showing how they operate in both customary theatre and online role-playing. Tobin Nellhaus is an independent scholar who was Librarian for Performing Arts, Media, and Philosophy at Yale University. He has published mainly on the relationship between theatre and communication practices, and on critical realist theory in theatre historiography. He is the General Editor of the third edition of Theatre Histories (London: Routledge, 2016), and the author of Theater, Communication, Critical Realism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

scholarly journals Engaged or Activist Scholarship? Feminist reflections on philosophy, accountability and transformational potential

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Rouse ◽  
Helen Woolnough
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Academic Profession ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Activist Scholarship

Van De Ven’s Engaged Scholarship is becoming institutionalised in the academic profession. His argument that research is radically under-used and more likely to be employed if practitioners engage in shaping research questions and processes is convincing. Nevertheless, Engaged Scholarship has been little critiqued. This article draws on feminist critical realist ontology to compare its philosophy, accountability and transformational potential with a method more familiar to feminism: Activist Scholarship. Engaged Scholarship is found to be underlaboured by a positivist ontology and strong social constructionist epistemology, skewed to the interests of power holders and unlikely to transform underlying social relations. Drawing on Activist Scholarship’s partisan accountability to the marginalised and commitment to collective action, but retaining the possibility of change by engaging power holders, we propose Engaged–Activist Scholarship, a method underlaboured by feminist critical realism, pluralist in its methodology, ambidextrous in its audience and accountable to transforming oppressive contexts.

scholarly journals Critical realism, mimetic theory and social work

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110088
Author(s):  
Stan Houston ◽  
Calvin Swords
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Mimetic Theory ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Realist Ontology

Summary Scapegoating is a ubiquitous, yet pernicious, phenomenon in today’s world. It manifests in innumerable ways. Social work, in line with its emancipatory value-base, seeks to engage with various scapegoated groups to challenge the experience. In this article, the authors draw on critical realism and mimetic theory to elucidate the causative mechanisms fuelling scapegoating. This is done in order to heighten social workers’ insight into the process and empower targeted groups. Findings Mimetic theory highlights that scapegoating is a product of desire, rivalry and deflection. These are deep-seated mechanisms that are compatible with critical realist ontology and its search for causative properties in the social world. It is argued that critical realism augments mimetic theory by setting it within a much wider and deeper context of understanding. As such, it emphasizes intersecting causes and contingencies such as the role of temporal and spatial factors shaping the scapegoating experience. Applications Social workers can transform these theoretical insights into sensitizing constructs when they facilitate self-directed groupwork with scapegoated groups. Being theoretically informed, they can pose critical questions to group members to assist them to make the link between personal problems and political issues. The aim is to empower these groups so that they can embrace the sociological imagination and act for change.

scholarly journals The Philosophy of Management Ideas

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Joe O’Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Communication ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Realist Conception

The philosophies that underpin studies of management ideas are rarely interrogated, which, it is argued here, leads to several difficulties for research in this field. This chapter makes explicit four philosophies which commonly underpin work in this area and argues that, among other limitations, their ontological strictures make interdisciplinary communication difficult. The chapter introduces critical realism, arguing that its stratified, emergent, and realist ontology can (partially) integrate the strengths from these different philosophies, whilst ameliorating their respective weaknesses. Finally, the chapter sketches out a critical realist conception of management ideas.

scholarly journals Applying critical realism in spirituality at work research

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 845-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter McGhee ◽  
Patricia Grant
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Levels Of Reality ◽  
Spirituality At Work ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Purpose This study aims to demonstrate how critical realism (CR) can be used in spirituality at work (SAW) research and to provide a practical example of CR in SAW research. Design/methodology/approach CR is a philosophical meta-theory that allows the stratification of spirituality into different levels of reality, advocates for research methods matching the ontology of the level investigated and provides complementary methods of exploring this phenomenon’s causal power in social contexts. The authors present a study where CR was used to explain how and why SAW influences ethics in organisational contexts. Findings The results demonstrate that CR provides a useful approach to bridging the positivist-interpretivist difference in SAW research. Moreover, a CR approach helped explain the underlying conditions and causal mechanisms that power SAW to influence ethical decision-making and behaviour in the workplace. Originality/value While CR has been applied in the management literature, negligible SAW research has used this approach. That which exists is either conceptual or does not discuss methods of data analysis, or describe how critical realist concepts resulted in their findings. This paper addresses that lacuna. CR also provides value, as an alternative approach to SAW research, in that it allows the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods as complementary, not confrontational methods while providing a more integrated and deeper view of SAW and its effects.

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