Causal powers in critical realist ontology

2013 ◽  
pp. 113-145
Keyword(s):  
Causal Powers ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Realist Ontology

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 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 Sustainable Accountability:   a Dualist Vedic Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Samuel David Stewart-Jacks
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
The Past ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge ◽  
Relative Factors

<p>This thesis offers a theory of sustainable accountability informed by Vedic philosophy. Although Vedic philosophy is often described as the philosophy of ancient India, this thesis will explain how relative factors, such as time and place, do not exclude one from experiencing the taste of what is described as the ripened fruit of the tree that is the Vedic literatures. The implications the Vedas have for sustainability stem mainly from their alternative notions of the self and its needs. The Vedas hold that upon a correct evaluation of the needs of the self, an individual will be completely satisfied and will therefore not desire to live and consume in a way that is destructive to their surrounding environment and its inhabitants. Within the Vedic paradigm there are two main divisions of thought - the dualist and non-dualist schools of philosophy. Because they differ in their conceptions of the self, these schools differ markedly in their notions of accountability, welfare and theories of sustainability and social change. Within the social accounting literature, a non-dualist theory of sustainable accountability has been given by Saravanamuthu (2006), but a dualist opinion has not yet been presented. This thesis seeks to introduce dualist Vedic philosophy and its theory of sustainability, and describe how a system of accountability could be constructed upon such a philosophy. In the past, academic scholarship has frowned upon sacred forms of knowledge such as the Vedas, and has considered their claims to be unverifiable. Therefore this thesis also asserts, using arguments from the critical realist ontology, that sacred forms of knowledge such as the Vedas should be admissible in academic circles.</p>

scholarly journals The Socio-Materiality of Dirty Work: A Critical Realist Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110113
Author(s):  
Anna Galazka ◽  
Joe O’Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Physical Domain ◽  
Dirty Work ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Environment ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Realist Perspective

New materialist applications in ‘dirty work’ studies have rightly emphasised the importance of materiality alongside symbolism. However, these approaches have neglected important themes irreducible to the material world, such as temporality, reflexivity and social structure. This article develops an alternative critical realist perspective on socio-materiality in dirty work which emphasises these themes. It draws on 2016–2017 ethnographic data on the work of clinical photographers of wounds in a UK specialist outpatient wound healing clinic. First, it shows how photographers’ reflexivity mediates the relationship between their embodied materiality and their agency in the physical domain. Second, it highlights the temporal dynamics between reflexive agents, their material environment, and the context of their operation. Finally, it emphasises the non-conflationary relationship between the social structures of the medical hierarchy and photographers’ agency in dirty work. Together, these contributions highlight the utility of an emergent, realist ontology in understanding the dynamics of dirty work.

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.

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.

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