File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2002/bhaskar.0205, message 151


Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 18:24:00 +0100
From: Mervyn Hartwig <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: BHA: Mainstream Philosophy of Science


Hi Andy,

I agree.

>A few referees of my 
>work have started by stating their utter lack of respect for Bhaskar.

In my experience many of those who speak thus haven't actually read him,
and their lack of respect is for what (they think) he stands for.

Mervyn


Andrew Brown <Andrew-AT-lubs.leeds.ac.uk> writes
>Hi all,
>
>This issue interests me too:
>
>My (none to informed) impression is that Harre *does* command 
>the respect of philosophers and philosophers of science. 
>Undoubtedly, for the most part, Bhaskar does not. If you read 
>through the few reviews of his early work in philosophy journals you 
>get some sort of impression of the repsonse. A few referees of my 
>work have started by stating their utter lack of respect for Bhaskar.
>Possible explanations are a combination of two things: firstly, what 
>Bhaskar says does cut against the grain; secondly, Bhaskar's 
>arguments are not of the type that cut the mustard within the 
>strange world of professional philosophers. 
>
>Then again, critical realism is arguably far more influential amongst 
>practicising social scientists than whatever passes for mainstream 
>philosophy / philosophy of science. Marshall, perhaps you could 
>approach your presentation by stressing the practical social 
>scientific (useful!) nature of your work, and how CR fits into that. 
>Professional philosophers seem to be none too good at actually 
>interpreting the social world, let alone changing it....
>
>Any profesisonal philosophers out there to offer some rather more 
>informed comment and assuage my prejudices?
>
>Andy
>
>
>Date sent:             Tue, 14 May 2002 13:56:17 -0400
>To:                    bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>From:                  Ruth Groff <rgroff-AT-yorku.ca>
>Subject:               Re: BHA: Mainstream Philosophy of Science
>Send reply to:         bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>
>> Hi Marsh,
>> 
>> Longer response later, but for now: boy can I ever relate!  [Have you not 
>noticed my repeated posts on this issue?]  
>> 
>> And it's not just in philosophy of science either; it's in metaphysics, 
>philosophy of language and history of philosophy too.  For what it's worth, I 
>think that the explanation is that Bhaskar, like Harre and Madden and now Ellis 
>and a few others, in propounding a non-Humean, non-Kantian 
>account of causality, was writing very much against the mainstream.  To make a 
>dent when you are doing that, you have to be unbelievably persistent -- and you 
>have to take it as an explicit goal, I think.  You have to publish where those 
>people publish, engage closely with what they say and do it 
>over and over and over and over and over ... you get the point.  Charles Taylor 
>is a good model for that kind of dogged persistence I think.  I get the sense 
>that Ellis has been up to it on a smaller scale in Australia.  The other 
>approach, of course, and a perfectly respectable one it seems to 
>me, is to more or less dismiss the people who you think are spouting nonsense, 
>and not waste time that could!
>>  be better spent on other things trying to make in-roads.  It seems to me that 
>that's been Bhaskar's approach.  So I think that mainstream philosophers don't 
>know about Bhaskar because he hasn't undertaken to force himself upon the 
>discipline.  [Though I should tell you that my friend who is a 
>serious historian and philosopher of science guy tells me that his impression is 
>that people *do* know about Bhaskar, but are put off by his writing style.  I 
>don't see why that should be a problem with RTS, personally, but that's what he 
>tells me.]  
>> 
>> Anyway I'd love to talk about this more.  What are you planning to say at this 
>conference?
>> 
>> Warmly,
>> Ruth
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>      --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
>
>
>
>     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

-- 
Mervyn Hartwig
Editor, Journal of Critical Realism (incorporating 'Alethia')
13 Spenser Road
Herne Hill
London SE24 ONS
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 7 737 2892
Email: <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>

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There is another world, but it is in this one.
Paul Eluard



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