Here is the talk delivered by Johnny Go at the Pre-Conference at the International Institute of Social Sciences at the Hague. The talk is entitled “Four Essential Insights of Critical Realism”–an introduction to original critical realism.
This session discussed the main themes introduced in A Realist Theory of Science which remain fundamental to critical realism. Four foundational insights of basic critical realism, based on Bhaskar’s transcendental analysis of sense perception and experimental activity, will be tackled – namely, intransitivity, stratification, open-system causality, and emergence. The critical realist view of the world that emerges from these insights and its implications on knowing will be discussed – particularly, critical realism’s critique of relativism, positivism, determinism, and reductionism.