Marxism and Critical Realism.pdfVIP

Marxism and Critical Realism Hans G. Ehrbar September 1998 We will discuss here the connection between Roy underlaborer of the scientist. Many successful scientists Bhaskar’s critical realism and Marxism. Bhaskar is a are realists, although others are quite naive regarding the Marxist, who did not write another exegesis of Grun- pre-conditions of their scientific activity. drisse, but re-derives Marx’s philosophical foundations Which results can the philosopher’s transcendental rea- based on today’s philosophical debates, by, as he says, soning lead to? The following is very abbreviated: “carrying the modern critiques of positivism to their logi- cal conclusion” [3]. 1. The world is open. Scientific activity does make a difference: it expands knowledge about the world and by this increases the range of things people can The Rediscovery of Ontology Do we need philosophy do. The ability of humans to make a difference is not in addition to the substantive sciences? Bhaskar thinks self-deception but is real. so; he is a philosopher. What is the difference between philosopher and scientist? 2. From the fact that science can explain the world al- though there is so much which we do not know fol-  The scientist uses certain “scientific” methods to lows that the world must be strati