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Critical Realism

==== page only started

Some years ago I put up a page about Bhaskar's Critical Realism, but have learned much since then. This page is about Critical Realism in general, examining what it is like and what are its strengths and weaknesses. It has just begun.

In brief

Critical Realism is good, useful, valuable, beautiful insofar as it

Acknowledges a reality that transcends us
Acknowledges that we can never full know that reality and that our opinions matter
And tries to go beyond subjectivism and objectivism.

But Critical Realism

Has no answer to the question, Why reality reveals rather than hides itself (or, rather, refuses to consider certain possible answers)
and hence has no basis for assuming it to be so.
Has no answer to the question, Why reality is diverse and coherence
and hence has no basis for assuming it to be so.
Has nothing to say about meaning
Has nothing much to say about normativity, (though it tries to construct a normativity out of knowing and being)
Yet diversity, meaning, normativity are the things of the lifeworld
So it has nothing to say about the lifeworld.

What Is Critical Realism?

What Does Critical Realism Believe?

Three types of reality:

The Empirical: That which is observed and experienced
The Actual: That which actually happens, a subset of which is observed and experienced
The Real: That which enable the Actual to actually happen.

A Dooyeweerdian View


CR belief	Dooyeweerd affirms	Dooyeweerd critiques	Dooyeweerd enriches
Empirical Reality	Human knowing	CR presupposes theoretical attitude of knowing	Allow pre-theoretical attitude. Diverse ways of knowing. Deeper transcendental critique of theoretical thought.
Actual Reality	The entire temporal reality, existing and occurring 'in' time by virtue of response to aspectual law	Tendency to focus on the reality of earlier aspects (physical to psychic) and reduce others to these, though there is an explicit attempt to acknowledge the social aspect. Tendency to treat time as 'railway lines into the future' along which Actual Reality 'runs' (maybe with choice-points).	Many types of actual reality, one basic type per aspect Time as generated by response to aspectual law; freedom within aspectual law.
'The Real' Reality	Aspectual law	CR conflates aspectual law with structures made possible by that law, e.g. biotic law conflated with biotic structures like DNA. Tendency (though claims otherwise) to assume a distal observer.	Notion of aspectual law as that which enables all in diverse ways. Observer always subject to same aspectual law as the observed. Three ways of coming to know aspectual law: intuitive grasp of kernel meaning, informal awareness of distinct meanings, theoretical or scientific attempts at precise knowing.

Critiques of Critical Realism

Klein made a critique of CR. ==== summary of his critique here.

But I feel that Klein's critique is somewhat transcendent rather than immanent. It presupposes a freedom pole.

This page is part of a collection of pages that links to various thinkers, within The Dooyeweerd Pages, which explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy. Email questions or comments would be welcome.

Number of visitors to these pages: Counter . Written on the Amiga and Protext.

Created: 20 April 2008 Last updated: 13 October 2010 comparison table.