•  9
    Dear EditorOn the face of it, it is surprising that well-respected proponents of critical realism have taken the piece by Tom Fryer and Cristián Navarrete seriously in the roundtable discussion ‘Do...
  •  5
    Empiricism and the Metatheory of the Social Sciences
    with Roy Bhaskar
    Routledge. 2018.
    A picture has indeed held modern Western philosophy captive, that of the universe as a vast machine whose iron laws are best understood as exceptionless empirical regularities which, as it were, determine the future before it happens. This fantastic conception commands the assent, not just of positivistically-minded naturalists but of all the great anti-naturalists who champion a very different view of human action as a domain of freedom ¿that somehow cheats science¿. The most fundamental move i…Read more
  •  10
    Since its inception in the 1970's, critical realism has grown to address a broad range of subjects, including economics, philosophy, science, and religion. It has also gone through a number of key evolutions that have changed its direction, and seen it develop into a complex and mature branch of philosophy. Critical Realism: A Brief Introduction, is the first book to look back over the entire field of critical realism in one concise and accessible volume. As the originator and chief exponent of …Read more
  •  11
    Fail better: response to Holland
    Journal of Critical Realism 18 (1): 83-90. 2019.
    ABSTRACTThis is a response to Dominic Holland’s critique of Roy Bhaskar’s posthumous Enlightened Common Sense, which I edited. Holland claims that his critique is immanent, but I argue that it is not, on two interrelated counts: it fails to achieve hermeneutic adequacy; and criticizes Bhaskar’s arguments and positions using mainly transcendent, not immanent, criteria.
  •  23
    This essay calls attention to robust synergies between Roy Bhaskar’s philosophy of dialectical critical realism and Terrence W. Deacon’s recent investigation of the geo-historical emergence of ententional or teleological phenomena, as well as important differences. Deacon has independently arrived at an understanding of absence as causally efficacious in the emergence of life and consciousness, and deploys a range of other concepts that resonate with DCR. He develops a critique both of eliminati…Read more
  • Interdisciplinarity, etc
    In Mervyn Hartwig (ed.), Dictionary of Critical Realism, Routledge. 2007.
  • Tendency
    with Brian Pinkstone
    In Mervyn Hartwig (ed.), Dictionary of Critical Realism, Routledge. pp. 458--60. 2007.
  •  89
    ‘Orthodox’ Critical Realism and the Critical Realist Embrace
    Journal of Critical Realism 8 (2): 233-257. 2009.
    Distinguishing between ‘analytical’ or ‘orthodox’ and ‘dialectical’ readings of first-wave critical realism, this review essay engages critically with the former as exemplified in Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations, edited by Jon Frauley and Frank Pearce. It argues that the ‘orthodox’ reading is fixist and endist and that this is conducive to an ill-informed and unconstructive attitude of hostility to dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality t…Read more
  •  13
    This essay calls attention to robust synergies between Roy Bhaskar’s philosophy of dialectical critical realism and Terrence W. Deacon’s recent investigation of the geo-historical emergence of ententional or teleological phenomena, as well as important differences. Deacon has independently arrived at an understanding of absence as causally efficacious in the emergence of life and consciousness, and deploys a range of other concepts that resonate with DCR. He develops a critique both of eliminati…Read more
  •  11
    From the Anatomy of the Global Crisis to the Ontology of Human Flourishing
    Journal of Critical Realism 14 (3): 227-237. 2015.
  •  82
    Bhaskar's Critique of the Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
    Journal of Critical Realism 10 (4): 485-510. 2011.
    Uniquely among contemporary philosophies, Roy Bhaskar’s system of critical realism attempts to sublate (draw out the real strengths of and surpass) the philosophical discourse of modernity considered as a dialectically developing totality. This paper systematically expounds and comments on Bhaskar’s metacritique of that discourse and situates it briefly in relation to Jürgen Habermas’s earlier critique
  •  17
    Bhaskar's Critique of the Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
    Journal of Critical Realism 10 (4): 485-510. 2011.
    Uniquely among contemporary philosophies, Roy Bhaskar's system of critical realism and metaReality attempts to sublate (draw out the real strengths of and surpass) the philosophical discourse of modernity considered as a dialectically developing totality. This paper systematically expounds and comments on Bhaskar's metacritique of that discourse and situates it briefly in relation to Jürgen Habermas's earlier critique.
  •  10
    Critical realism and spirituality (edited book)
    with Jamie Morgan
    Routledge. 2012.
    The rise of neo-integrative worldviews : towards a rational spirituality for the coming planetary civilization -- Beyond fundamentalism : spiritual realism, spiritual literacy and education -- Realism, literature and spirituality -- Judgemental rationality and the equivalence of argument : realism about God, response to Morgan's critique -- Transcendence and God : reflections on critical realism, the "new atheism", and Christian theology -- Human sciences at the edge of panentheism : God and the…Read more
  •  27
    MetaRealism
    Journal of Critical Realism 14 (4): 339-349. 2015.
  •  21
    Dictionary of critical realism (edited book)
    Routledge. 2007.
    Dictionary of Critical Realism fills a vital gap in the literature. The dictionary seeks to redress the problem of accessibility by explaining all the main concepts and key developments. It has more than 500 entires on these themes, with contributions from many leading critical realists, and is thoroughly cross-referenced. However, this text does not stop at the elucidation of concepts. It incorporates surveys of critical realist work and prospects in more than fifty areas of study across the hu…Read more
  •  11
    The realist third way
    with Rachel Sharp
    Journal of Critical Realism 2 (1): 17-23. 1999.
  •  37
    Response to Datta, Frauley and Pearce
    Journal of Critical Realism 9 (2): 248-254. 2010.
    This is a reply to R. P. Datta, J. Frauley and F. Pearce, ‘Situation critical: for a critical, reflexive, realist, emancipatory social science’ (Journal of Critical Realism 9(2) 2010: 229–48), which responded to my critique in ‘“Orthodox critical realism” and the critical realist embrace’ (Journal of Critical Realism 8(3): 233–57) of J. Frauley and F. Pearce, eds, Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations (Toronto: University of Toronto Press)
  •  30
    Dialectics of utopia and the pulse of freedom
    Journal of Critical Realism 6 (2): 267-285. 2007.
    This paper demonstrates that the historical materialist framework deployed in Utopia Ltd. is implicitly critical realist at the level of social ontology. It supplies critical realist concepts that are only implicit in the analysis, for example ‘the pulse of freedom’, and suggests a provisional critical realist typology of utopian epochs on the basis of the one that Beaumont implicitly deploys, thereby demonstrating that critical realism can sharpen, deepen and add a more adequate philosophical r…Read more
  •  16
    All You Need is Love
    Journal of Critical Realism 14 (2): 205-224. 2015.
    This essay sets out some key qualities of love according to the philosophy of critical realism, together with Roy Bhaskar's arguments for them. It then considers how Bhaskar's claims stack up with the findings of modern physics, indicates how the category of love unifies the philosophical system of critical realism and critiques Luc Ferry's view that the reign of love has already begun in the West, before briefly discussing the practical application of Bhaskar's philosophy of love in the work of…Read more