Critical realism principles include philosophical under-labouring, seriousness, immanent critique, philosophy as presupposition, and enhanced reflexivity. Critical realism assumes an ontologically structured and changing reality. It posits three domains: the empirical (experiences), actual (events), and real (underlying mechanisms). Critical realism combines ontological realism about an independent world, epistemological relativity of knowledge, and judgemental rationality in evaluating theories about the world.

1. Gary Hawke
Autumn term 2015
30th November Session 5
Critical Realism Reading Seminars

2. The Critical Realism Principles
The first is philosophical under-
labouring.
The second is seriousness.
The third is immanent critique.
The fourth is the idea of philosophy
as a pre-supposition.
The fifth is enhanced reflexivity or
transformative practice.
The sixth is the principle of
hermeticism.

3. Critical realism presupposes that ontology
is structured, differentiated and changing.
This also involves a switch from events to
mechanisms that generate events. In other
words, it puts the emphasis on what
produces events not the events
themselves. To explain the role of
mechanisms, events and experiences,
critical realism posits three ontological
domains: the real, the actual and the
empirical.
The empirical
domain relates to our direct or indirect experience. The actual
includes the events happening independently of our
experience. The real domain identifies the underlying
mechanisms that generate events that we experience.
Haji-Abdi A. pp14 Critical Realism, Somalia and the Diaspora Community.

4. Unholy Trinity

5. The view that whatever exists most have always
existed and cannot change or cease to exists.
Parmenides also bequeathed another
legacy to philosophy: the generation of a
purely positive, complementing a purely
actual, notion of reality, in what I am going
to nominate the doctrine of ontological
monovalence. In this study I aim to
revindicate negativity. Indeed, by the time
we are through, I would like the reader to
see the positive as a tiny, but important,
ripple on the surface of a sea of negativity.
Ontological Monovalence

6. “The epistemic fallacy
involves the fallacious
inference that because
there is no
epistemologically objective
view of the world, there is
also no objective world
ontologically. Such an
inference leads to the
extravagant and relativist
claim that, to the extent
that we embrace different
world-views, we inhabit
objectively different
worlds.”
The Epistemic Fallacy
Margaret S. Archer, Andrew Collier and Douglas V. Porpora, Transcendence: Critical Realism and God,
Routledge 2004 pp 1

7. Despain, Hans G Sun Mar 9 11:45:04 MDT 2014
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/pipermail/critical-realism/2014-March/012949.html
The primal squeeze is an argument that
[…]"squeeze" out the (critical realist)
concepts such as ontological
stratification, powers, transfactuality,
tendency, etc. from a philosophical
position for science.
Primal Squeeze

8. Holy Trinity

9. The holy trinity of critical realism or basic critical
realism is the compatibility of three things:
Ontological Realism, that is realism about the
world, Epistemological Relativity, that is the idea
that the beliefs are socially produced, fallible,
unchangeable and changing so our knowledge is
relative. And the third principle is that of
Judgemental Rationality and this says that even
though our knowledge is relative, we can produce in
particular contexts, strong arguments for preferring
one set of beliefs, one set of theories about the
world to another.
A Beginner’s Guide to Critical Realism By Professor Roy Bhaskar
Based on “An Introduction to Critical Realism”, a virtual classroom course hosted by
Gary Hawke and led by Professor Roy Bhaskar at the Institute of Education – May to
Holy Trinity

10. Wilkinson M (2013) Introducing Islamic critical realism, Journal of Critical Realism, 12:
419-442
flat and neither did the
experience of living on it […]
entities and phenomena can
exist without being known or
even if there is no possibility that
they can come to be known.
A basic understanding of a critical realist ontology is that […]
reality exists, absolutely or relatively, independently of our
ability to describe it […] That being does not equal knowing is
proved by the fact that the globe did not suddenly change
shape when it was discovered not to be
Ontological Realism

11. Margaret S. Archer, Andrew Collier and Douglas V. Porpora, Transcendence: Critical Realism and God,
Routledge 2004 pp 1
Epistemic relativism […] means that
we are each positioned to see the
world somewhat differently. Our
experiences of the world vary. […]
In terms of epistemic relativism, we
can now offer one reason why
different people are disposed to
believe or disbelieve in
transcendent realities like God.
Simply put, for whatever reason,
some people personally experience
such transcendent realities and
interpret them as such; others do
not.
Epistemic Relativism

12. Judgemental rationality is mediated through
detailed attention to the processes of logic,
discourse and debate that pertain
Wilkinson M (2013) Introducing Islamic critical realism, Journal of Critical Realism, 12:
pp 435
to any particular field or
discipline, the operation of
effective and coherent
research methods and
design and personal
introspection and reflexivity.
Judgemental Rationality

14. “Figure 9.3 Examples of the modes of the fulcrum of ICR transposed into
citizenship education.”
Matthew L. N. Wilkinson. “A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-Faith World: A Philosophy for Success Through
Education.”

15. Book launch
Tuesday 8
December
5:30-7:30pm