Set 3

Realist Theory of Science

by Prof. Roy Bhaskar

Published 1 September 1978
This systematic study describes how only a conception of science as a social activity attempting to capture ever-deeper structures of the world can reconcile the conflicting insights of empiricism and rationalism. This position, which the author characterizes as transcendental realism, has the power to resolve many of the traditional problems in philosophy, such as the problems of induction and of universals. Since its original publication in 1975, a movement known as "critical realism" has developed on the basis of key concepts outlined in the text. Roy Bhaskar is the author of "Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation", "Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom" and "Freedom Etc.".