What is critical realism?

Social Psychology (10th Edition)
10th Edition
ISBN:9780134641287
Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology
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What is critical realism?

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Introduction

Roy Bhaskar developed critical realism in his work A Realist Theory of Science 1975. This perspective draws a parallel between the observable world and the real world.

Explanation

The critical realism theory states that what individuals experience as reality is the observable world where the reality is constructed based on their experience and understanding. But the real world is independent of and lies beyond the perception of individuals. The real-world lies in the unobservable structures. These unobservable structures inform the events resulting in the observable world.

Bhasker argued that epistemology and ontology must be separated from one another for the social sciences to work. And he urged that the transitive and intransitive bodies of knowledge must be studied. The transitive knowledge represents the nature of changeability of our understanding of what is real. The transitive realm represents our theories of events that we try to understand in the intransitive dimension.

 

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