Roy Bhaskar
From Geography
Roy Bhaskar was born in Teddington, London in 1944. He is a British philospher, associated with the movement of Critical Realism.
He went to the Balliol College in Oxford in 1963. Here he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics. After he graduated, he begon to work on a thesis about the relevance of economic theory for under-developed countries. Through this thesis he became first interested in the philosophy of social science, later in the philosophy of science. These interestes led to the development of the Critical Realism. Ways of thinking in this theory can be compared with ways of thinking in the Enlightment. It avoids irrationalism through self awareness
Bhaskar has taught at different universities, such as the university of Edinburgh and Oxford. Since 1995 he works fulltime on the centre for Critical Realism.
Critical Realism
Roy's idea of critical realism was to do with how the mind makes sense of some data accurately and is able to represent external objects, properties and events while other data this is not possible, it is also critical of nature itself. Roy looks at the relationship between the natural and social worlds. Roy see's critical realism as a transcendental method of argument which has become a dialectical argument this is something he thought was missing within the philosophy of science. The term critical realism has also been used in other schools of thought for example the work done by Roy Wood Sellars an American critical realist.
Some of his publications
- Roy Bhaskar (1978). On the Possibility of Social Scientific Knowledge and the Limits of Naturalism. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 8 (1):1–28.
- Roy Bhaskar (2010). Plato Etc.: Problems of Philosophy and Their Resolution. Routledge.
- Roy Bhaskar (2008). A Realist Theory of Science. Routledge
- Roy Bhaskar (2007). Introducing Transcendental Dialectical Critical Realism. Journal of Critical Realism 3 (1)
- Roy Bhaskar & Alex Callinicos (2007). Marxism and Critical Realism: A Debate. Journal of Critical Realism 1 (2):-
- Roy Bhaskar (2000). From East to West: Odyssey of a Soul. Routledge.
- Roy Bhaskar (1997). On the Ontological Status of Ideas. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 27 (2&3):139–147.
- Roy Bhaskar (1983). Beef, Structure and Place: Notes From a Critical Naturalist Perspective. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 13 (1):81–96.
- Roy Bhaskar (1978). On the Possibility of Social Scientific Knowledge and the Limits of Naturalism. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
8 (1):1–28.
- Roy Bhaskar 1997 [1975], "A Realist Theory of Science," London: Version
Published by Lotte Brouwer & Inge Schoenmakers
Edited by Laura Brunning
