Author: jcgosj

Here are the six introductory lectures (so far!) on original critical realism.

Lecture 1: Here is a 12-minute talk on the critical realist notion of judgemental rationality, its relation to ontological realism and epistemic relativism. These three concepts–often referred to as ‘the holy trinity of critical realism’–are central to the epistemology that emerges from Roy Bhaskar’s philosophy of  the sciences.

Lecture 2: The second episode of the Bite-Size Critical Realist is a 15-minute talk on existential intransitivity, a central concept in Roy Bhaskar’s original or basic critical realism. It is a concept that is more relevant than ever.

Lecture 3: The third episode of the Bite-Size Critical Realist is here: a 15-minute talk on depth stratification, another fundamental insight  in Roy Bhaskar’s original or basic critical realism. Learn about this concept and its significance today.

Lecture 4: This fourth lecture from the Bite-Size Critical Realist tackles the concept of OPEN-SYSTEMIC CAUSALITY based on Bhaskar’s transcendental analysis of experimental activity.

The idea of the world as an open system redefines causality, in the process, evaluating the goal of the sciences in predicting phenomena and the notion of determinism with regard to human beings as well as nature. Open-systemic causality is one of the five basic insights of Critical Realism.

Lecture 5: This is our fifth mini-lecture for the Bite-Size Critical Realist series. This is Part 1: An Open System of Emergent Causes. It tackles the concept of ONTOLOGICAL EMERGENCE.

Ontological emergence further nuances the redefinition of causality resulting from the notion of the OPEN SYSTEM. Part 2 will tackle the implications of ontological emergence in our conceptualization of the human person and freedom.

Lecture 6: Our sixth bite-size lecture is Part 2 of the critical realist theory of ONTOLOGICAL EMERGENCE:

The mini-lecture focuses on some of the implications of this critical realist theory:  scientific explanations, a conception of the mind, of society, of the human person, and the different sciences. It also offers a critique of reductionism, determinism, and the so-called “theory of everything.”