Subject: BHA: Re: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 21:51:13 -0400


Hi Dee--

Actually models are explicitly a part of CR.  I can't give chapter and verse
because I recently moved and everything's in disarray, but I know RB talks
about it at a couple of points in RTS, even if not in great depth.  The
basic argument however is that in positivism, models are essentially
understood as descriptions of behavior (at the level of events, and
basically serving pragmatic or psychological needs), whereas in CR they are
interpretations of real entities and/or their powers.  The concept of
"underlying mechanisms" is a model, as is any theory of a particular
mechanism.  For that matter, the theory that reality is stratified is itself
a model (note the metaphoric role of "strata").

If you're the sort of person who likes to drive your advisor nuts, you might
observe that "model building" is also a model, and that you reject it in
favor of model baking.

Cheers,

T.

---
Tobin Nellhaus
nellhaus-AT-mail.com
"Faith requires us to be materialists without flinching": C.S. Peirce


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dee Prat" <deep-AT-intekom.co.za>
To: "Bhaskar Mailing List" <bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Friday, 06 August 2004 3:38 AM
Subject: BHA: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR


Please could mailing list subscribers help me with this.  I've carried out a
depth investigation into certain key aspects of written composition over the
last 20 years, and have arrived at a view of writing which has enabled me to
produce a writing tutor computer program.  I didn't start this as a formal
research project, but found out fairly recently that the type of inquiry I
was engaged in was critical realist in nature.  I then formally adopted a
critical realist research orientation, and am engaged in writing up the
development of both a "model" of written composition and the writing tutor
program informed by it as a Ph.D. thesis.



The investigation was more of a "life experience" than a formal research
project, but the results of the investigation can be backed up from
literature, current approaches and theory on written composition, as well as
several formal research projects.  I found video protocol analyses (of which
I've carried out more than 40, with students writing actual assignments)
particularly useful in being able to project my thinking past the
events/experience mismatch which Bhaskar notes (he uses the term "out of
phase", I think).  I also found it useful to focus on particular
characteristics of the written mode of production itself, which Tobin
Nellhaus has helped me to back up by providing a copy of  one of his
conference papers.  My inquiry revealed four levels of stratification, and I
have a tentative model which explains composing by showing it as an
individual act, a social act, and a mode of discourse with specific
features - I have also been able (again, tentatively) to trace the
mechanisms as far as certain key aspects of human communication.



At this stage, you may well ask, why don't I just "die happy"?  Well, my
supervisors require a formal exposition on the development of models, as
well as evidence of "rigour" (and, obviously, evidence that the criteria
demonstrating it have been fulfilled in the actual research).  Now I'm not
sure if critical realists actually develop models, or if the notion of
"rigour" itself is typical of critical realism (and if it is, I would expect
the definition to be different from that offered in other orientations).
Instead of "model building", critical realists might carry out "depth
investigations" and arrive at explanations involving mechanisms at various
layers, which is what I actually have done.



Please could I have some help on the issue of model development within a
critical realist perspective, and any readings or websites where I could
find out more?  If this kind of "model building" (even the word "building"
sounds a bit positivist) doesn't apply you critical realism, I would be very
grateful to be able to cite some authority on this to satisfy the degree
requirements (personally, I'm quite happy to take your word on it).



Regards

Dee Pratt



P.S. I'm senior lecturer in the English Dept at a multicultural technikon in
Durban, South Africa, and would really like to complete my Ph.D. before I
retire!





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