Interdisciplinarity and Wellbeing

Roy Bhaskar was the originator of the philosophy of critical realism and the author of many acclaimed and influential works including A Realist Theory of Science (1975); The Possibility of Naturalism (1979); Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation (1986); Reclaiming Reality (1989); Philosophy and the Idea of Freedom (1991); Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom (1993); Reflections on Meta-Reality (2002); and From Science to Emancipation (2011).Berth Danermark is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the School of Health Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden. He is also the Director of Doctoral Studies (and founder member) of the Swedish Institute of Disability Research.Leigh Price is Senior Research Associate at the Environmental Learning and Research Centre, Rhodes University, South Africa, and Editor of the Journal of Critical Realism.

• 1. Introduction Part I: Antinomies of Mainstream Interdisciplinarity 2. Overview of the Contemporary Literature 3. Contemporary Ways to Justify Interdisciplinarity Part II: A Critical Realist General Theory of Interdisciplinarity4. Core Concepts of Critical Realism 5. Critical Realism and Social Science 6. The Ontological Case for Interdisciplinarity 7. The Seven Steps to a Deeper Understanding of Ontology8. Critical Realism and the Alternative Metatheories/MethodologiesPart III: Applied Interdisciplinary Research9. Biophysical Interventions Are Not Enough: the Hidden (Holistic) Healing Ensemble10. The Seven Enigmas of Healing 11. The Biopsychosocial Approach, with Special Reference to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health12. The Practical Organization of Interdisciplinary Co-operation 13. Understanding Methodological Imperialism 14. Interdisciplinarity in Action: Explaining the Epidemiology of HIV15. Concluding Considerations

This book is the definitive critical realist account, in accessible prose, of what science must do to maximize its understanding of the world, and in particular human wellbeing and flourishing.Mervyn Hartwig, editor and principal author of Dictionary of Critical Realism