Invitation to join the Bhaskar reading

[Hans Ehrbar <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Right now, Spoon's bhaskar discussion list is starting a collective
reading of Bhaskar's works.  It is serious philosophy, quite difficult
to read, but in my (Hans Ehrbar's) view, Bhaskar's philosophy derives
>from first principles, in the framework of modern critiques of
positivism, the philosophical outlook Marx became more and more
committed to during his life.  This is by the way also how Bhaskar
understands himself.  Bhaskar is extremely relevant not only for
Marxists but also for any scientist today.  The first work which will
be read, Bhaskar's "Realist Theory of Science", argues that positivism
is wrong even in the natural sciences.  Announcement and explanations
how to join follow below.

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* BHASKAR is a (virtual) community committed to the discussion of    *
* the philosophy of Roy Bhaskar and Critical Realism as a philosophy *
* _for_ science and as a movement for further human emancipation.    *
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In Bhaskar early writings, his concern is developing a philosophy for
science (and social science).  Bhaskar's philosophy for science has
"Lockean" motives, as the underlaborer, and sometimes midwife of
science itself.  Moreover, there are "Popperian" motives in that
Bhaskar attempts to explain what scientists are doing when they are
doing science (or the dialectic of scientific activity).  But were
Popper commitments himself to falsification criteria (committing
what Bhaskar calls the epistemic fallacy), Bhaskar constructs an
explicit ontological realm to understood the driving force of
scientific progress.

Bhaskar's philosophy for science emerges after 150 years of critique
toward empiricism, and more recently the positivist tradition.
Movements away from the empiricist\positivist conceptions of the
philosophy of science have quite often had thinkers committed to
pragmatism, convention and relativism,  or an abandonment of
philosophy altogether.

Bhaskar does not choose any of these routes, but rather constructs a
philosophy for science which is capable of supporting an explicit
ontological realm, which Bhaskar calls "depth realism," which has
been dubbed Critical Realism.

Critical Realism is a hybrid term, which refers to the philosophy
_for_ science of a number of philosophers and thinkers of who Roy
Bhaskar has come to be know as the figure head.  The philosophical
position of Bhaskar's first book, _A Realist Theory of Science_ was
dubbed "transcendental realism", and his second book, _The
Possibility of Naturalism_, "critical naturalism", hence the hybrid
term "Critical Realism".

One could argue that in part the significance of Bhaskar's
philosophy is the further development of human knowledge of: the
world, society, human beings themselves and the universe, along with
further human emancipation and freedom.

For many people today the practical, philosophical and emancipatory
importance of Roy Bhaskar's philosophy cannot be understated.  It is
the aim of this list to bring forth and discuss this importance.
Moreover, Bhaskar's work is often held to be quite dense, deep in
philosophical prose, and in short -- difficult.  The Bhaskar list
hopes and aims to relieve a bit of the anxiety from the Bhaskar
reader.

The list further hopes to bring together those who may be applying
his philosophy to their own work, and introduce and discuss the work
being done within the framework of Critical Realism.

The aim of the Bhaskar list will be to discuss Critical Realism as a
philosophy for science and as a philosophy for human emancipation.
Depending on the will of the lists members, the Bhaskar list is
capable of supporting different forums, for example:

     1) an open discussion forum.  In this forum there will be an
        open discourse of Critical Realism.

     2) seminars on specific articles and publication of
        pertaining to the work of Roy Bhaskar and Critical Realism

     3) A Bhaskar reading group.  Those who desire such a forum would
        together decide what they would like to read, discuss and
        archive.

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