Roy Bhaskar is a brilliant innovative philosopher

Roy Bhaskar was born in London in 1944 by an English mother and an Indian father. He is the originator of the philosophy of critical realism. Bhaskar graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with first class honours and planned to do a PhD in economics on the relevance of economic theory for under-developed countries. The inadequacies of economic theory made him return to the study of philosophy to explore the basic flaws in the established tradition in the philosophy of science.

His first book A Realist Philosophy of Science, first published in 1975 (2nd edition in 1997), attracted international attention as a critique of positivism in the philosophy of science, including in the positivist paradigm both empiricism and critical rationalism. Bhaskar coined his alternative philosophy of science Transcendental Realism. The insights from A Realist Theory of Science were extended to a philosophy for the social sciences in The Possibility of Naturalism. A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences, first published in 1979 (3nd edition 1998). Bhaskar called his philosophy for the human sciences Critical Naturalism. The term Critical Realism, an elision of Transcendental Realism and Critical Naturalism, was not initially used by Bhaskar, but has been accepted by him after being proposed by others. The philosophy of critical realism put forward in his first two books, took a dialectical turn in Dialectic. The Pulse of Freedom, which was published in 1993.

Bhaskar claims that this dialectic development of his philosophy does annul earlier insights, but is an extension of them and was dormant in the earlier formulations. In From East to West Bhaskars philosophy took a new spiritual turn by formulating a theory of spirituality that he considers compatible with “all faiths and no faith”. The most recent addition to his philosophy is his philosophy of Meta-Reality, which is presented in three books: From Science to Emancipation; meta-Reality. Creativity, Love and Freedom; Reflections on Meta-Reality. Transcendence, Emancipation and Everyday Life, all published by Sage Publications. In 2003 he took up a fellowship at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences from where his work took on a more concrete and sociological turn. He is at present concerned with concrete issues of interdisciplinary research, in the field of what could be called 'applied critical realism'. In 2004 he accepted an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Philosophy of Peace at the Centre for Peace Studies, University of Tromsø, Norway and is currently Guest Professor in Philosophy and Social Science at Örebro University.

Roy Bhaskar has been recognized as a brilliant innovative philosopher and originator of a new school of philosophy, critical realism, destined to be seen, alongside empiricism, Kantianism, hermeneutics, critical theory, post-modernism, etc. as an essential ingredient in university curricula in philosophy, the social sciences and the humanities generally.

alan kazlev Says: December 14th, 2006 at 5:42 am Hi Tusar, I’m not familar with Roy Bhaskar. I have to admit when it comes to the empirical world I’m a critical realist! Probably my scientific side, i don’t agree with the concept of The Given being a Myth. There’s something on Bhaskar on Wikipedia but it’s only a short article.