The work of Roy Bhaskar has had far-reaching effects in the philosophy of science and for political and moral theories of human emancipation. It shows how to overcome the atomistic and narrowly human-centered approaches which have dominated European thought for four centuries. In this readable introduction to his work, Andrew Collier expounds and defends the main concepts of Bhaskar's philosophy.
The first part of this book looks at the philosophy of experimental science and discusses the stratification of nature, showing how biological structures are founded on chemical ones yet are not reducible to them. This paves the way, in part two, for a discussion of the human sciences which demonstrates that the world they study is also rooted in and emergent from nature. Bhaskar's concept of an "explanatory critique" (an explanation that is also a criticism, not in addition to, but by virtue of, its explanatory work) is discussed at length as a key concept for ethics and politics. Collier concludes by looking at the uses to which critical realism has been put in clarifying disputes within the human sciences with particular reference to linguistics, psychoanalysis, economics and politics.

A thoughtful exposition of the work and ideas of Roy Bhaskar

About the Author
Andrew Collier (1944-2014) was senior lecturer on philosophy at the University of Southampton. He was the author of R.D.Laing (1977), Scientific Realism and Social Thought (1989), and Socialist Reasoning (1990). In the 1990s, Collier was a member of the Radical Philosophy journal editorial collective, where he was also a longstanding contributor.


Book Information
ISBN 9780860916024
Author Andrew Collier
Format Paperback
Page Count 292
Imprint Verso Books
Publisher Verso Books
Weight(grams) 380g
Dimensions(mm) 218mm * 137mm * 23mm