Empiricism and the Metatheory of the Social Sciences

Roy Bhaskar (1944–2014) was the originator of the philosophy of critical realism and the author of many acclaimed and influential works, including A Realist Theory of Science; The Possibility of Naturalism; Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom; The Philosophy of MetaReality; Enlightened Common Sense and (with Mervyn Hartwig) The Formation of Critical Realism.Mervyn Hartwig is founding editor (retired) of Journal of Critical Realism and editor and principal author of Dictionary of Critical Realism.

• List of DiagramsList of TablesAbbreviations and SymbolsAuthor’s AcknowledgementsEditor’s PrefaceEditor’s AcknowledgementsIntroduction 1. On the Conditions of Empirical Description1.1 Speech acts 1.2 Meaning 1.3 Propositions and directives 1.4 Propositions and statements 1.5 The context of utterance 1.6 The establishment of a common context of utterance 1.7 Further remarks on the identity of an assertion 1.8 Reflexive and non-reflexive uses of ‘true’ 1.9 The notion of analyticity 1.10 The conditions of empirical description 1.11 Conclusion: themes 2. Empiricist theories of the production of knowledge2.1 Introduction 2.2 The reification of facts and the autonomisation of experience 2.3 Theories of the explanation and justification of ideas 2.4 The theory of incorrigibility 2.5 The method and consequences of phenomenalism 2.6 Theories of the production of knowledge 2.7 The problem of scepticism 2.8 The problem of argument and the metatheory of science 2.9 Meaning and scientific change 2.10 The theory of falsifiability 2.11 The grounds for an asymmetry and the implications of relativism 2.12 The concept of a fact 3. Explanation in open systems 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Determinisms 3.3 The concept of a closure 3.4 Two types of autonomy in open systems 3.5 Positivism and the idea of a closure 3.6 Introductory remarks on explanation in the social sciences 3.7 The inadequacies of reductionism 3.8 On the absence of an experimental object of inquiry 3.9 On the theoretical objects of social sciences 3.10 Some properties of social systems and of men 3.11 Powers and tendencies: explanation in open and closed systems 3.12 Some aspects of the empiricist concept of law 3.13 The problem of verification and the alleged ‘non-falsifiability’ of social scientific theory 3.14 On the uses of the ceteris paribus clause 3.15 The interpretation of normic statements Bibliography Index of ‘technical’ terms