Political Studies
Book Note Form
Roy Bhaskar (2007) A Realist Theory of Science. London: Verso. 284pp, £6.99, 978 1 84467 204 2
The primary aim of Bhaskar’s study is to develop a systematic realist account of science, whereas his secondary aim is to display why a return to positivism, which since the time of Hume has tainted our image of science, is not tenable or possible in today’s environ. In so doing, he synthesizes the social character of science with the stratification of science, and shows why the realism presupposed by the social character of science should be\extended to the objects of scientific thought postulated by the stratification of science. Bhaskar demonstrates herein that the basic principle of a realist philosophy of science is that perception gives one access to real structures that exist independently of one’s observation of them.
Bhaskar offers what he titles a “transcendental realism,” which is in opposition to the empirical realism that has predominated science and philosophy since Hume and Kant. In fact, Bhaskar posits that the notion of the empirical world is a categorical mistake. He argues that because knowledge is a social product, so too is the derivation of scientific laws, which means that it is very well likely that singular instances are potential data points for the construction of scientific laws. It is the overall contention of this study that science is an ongoing social activity, and that knowledge itself is a produced means of production. Overall, Bhaskar avers that in order for science to be possible, the world must consist of enduring and transfactually active mechanisms, as well as people who have the ability to be causal agents in their own right, acting self-consciously upon the world. Bhaskar’s greatest contribution herein is his noting that statement of ‘laws’ within science are truly statements of tendencies. Moreover, it is argued that science is concerned with both taxonomic and explanatory knowledge.
This new edition of the book, arriving some thirty years after the original, while not being reworked, nevertheless contains a postscript and an index which the first edition did not. As a result, two major lacunas are filled within this second edition that were readily apparent in the first. I recommend this title for those who possess interest in the philosophy of science, and for those who are pursuing graduate level studies.
BRADFORD MCCALL
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.