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"Constructive realism"
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Scandalous Knowledge
This book explores the radical reconceptions of knowledge and science emerging from constructivist epistemology, social studies of science, and contemporary cognitive science. Smith reviews the key issues involved in the twentieth-century critiques of traditional views of human knowledge and scientific truth and gives an extensively informed explanation of the alternative accounts developed by Fleck, Kuhn, Foucault, Latour, and others. She also addresses the various anxieties (e.g., over ‘relativism’) and ‘wars’ occasioned by these developments, placing them in their historical contexts and arguing that they are largely misplaced or spurious. Smith then examines the currently perplexed relations between the natural and human sciences, the grandiose claims and dubious methods of evolutionary psychology, and the complex play of naturalist, humanist, and posthumanist ideologies in contemporary views of the relation between humans and animals.
eBook
Epistemological Realism and Cognitive Science
The author shows that the conception of epistemological realism as a contemporary variant of epistemological realism continues the realism tradition and at the same time takes into account some constructivist ideas, giving them a new interpretation. Constructive realism can be a fruitful strategy in cognitive studies, as it gives a philosophical interpretation of the current popular approach in cognitive science: so called “4 E approach”: understanding cognition as embodied, enacted. embedded and extended. The problem of Illusion and Reality is analyzed from the position of constructive realism. The relations between different surrounding worlds of different cognitive agents and the common real world is specially investigated in the context of the opposition between Realism and Relativism.
Journal Article
The brain and the meaning of life
Why is life worth living? What makes actions right or wrong? What is reality and how do we know it? The Brain and the Meaning of Life draws on research in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to answer some of the most pressing questions about life's nature and value. Paul Thagard argues that evidence requires the abandonment of many traditional ideas about the soul, free will, and immortality, and shows how brain science matters for fundamental issues about reality, morality, and the meaning of life. The ongoing Brain Revolution reveals how love, work, and play provide good reasons for living.
eBook
Constructive-critical realism as a philosophy of science and religion
Although highly disputed, critical realism (in Ian G. Barbour’s style) is widely known as a tool to relate science and religion. Sympathising with an even more stringent hermeneutical approach, Andreas Losch had argued for a modification of critical realism into the so-called constructive-critical realism to give humanities with its constructive role of the subject due weight in any discussion on how to bridge the apparent gulf between the disciplines. So far, his constructive-critical realism has mainly been developed theologically. This paper will evaluate whether constructive-critical realism is suitable as a philosophy of both science and religion and an appropriate basis for the science and religion discourse. In his original account of the critical realist philosophy of science, Barbour discussed and modified agreement with data, coherence, scope and fertility as criteria for good science, and for religion as well. The article discusses each of the criteria in how far Barbour does justice to the relevant concept, both in science and religion, and it will ask how to eventually modify the criteria for a maybe more sustainable bridge between science and religion, drawing on the idea of constructive-critical realism. Niels Henrik Gregersen’s contextual coherence theory will play a significant role in this regard. The conclusion suggests a deeper meaning of the fertility criterium, embracing ethical fruitfulness as well. As constructive-critical realism fully acknowledges the importance of the role of the knower in the process of knowing, it leads us from pure epistemology into ethics.Contribution: (1) The science and religion debate, inspired by critical realism, is identified as mainly theological discourse about the influence of science on religion; (2) the analysis of truth criteria in Losch’s constructive-critical version of realism proposes an emphasis on correspondence in science and coherence in the humanities; and (3) the deeper meaning of the criterium of fertility in this philosophical stance is highlighted, including ethical fruitfulness.
Journal Article
The need of an ethics of planetary sustainability
The concept of sustainability is widely acknowledged as a political guideline. Economic, ecological, social and cultural aspects of sustainability are already under discussion. Current space mining efforts demand that the discussion become a broader one about ‘planetary sustainability’, including the space surrounding Earth. To date, planetary sustainability has mainly been used with reference to Earth only and I will extend it here, elaborating on a similar NASA initiative. This article (1) sketches the contemporary economic–political initiatives which call for a special reflection of Earth's location in space, and then (2) discusses the meaning of the concept of sustainability in this context. Next, (3) I relate the discussion to the issue of planetary and environmental protection, before, (4) finally, presenting a philosophical and theological perspective that seems particularly able to broach the issue of the multiple dimensions of sustainability in this context. This is the concept of constructive-critical realism. My overview of the topic concludes with (5) a summarizing outlook.
Journal Article
La richesse de la réalité : l’idée d’un réalisme critique-constructif
Le « réalisme critique », dans ses nombreuses variantes, garde une place importante dans le débat scientifique et théologique d’aujourd’hui. Alors qu’il a été mis substantiellement en avant par Ian Barbour, John Polkinghorne et Arthur Peacocke, une analyse de son origine et de son sens conduit à se demander si cette position proposée par les théologiens-scientifiques n’omet pas une caractéristique intrinsèque de la dimension personnelle de la réalité incorporée dans les sciences humaines. Compte tenu de la vision des sciences sociales qui considèrent que des personnes responsables de leurs conclusions et actions conduisent le processus scientifique, l’aspect éthique de la science ne peut être ignoré. Pour intégrer ces aspects dans une approche cohérente, il faut un modèle épistémologique plus différencié, qui se fonde dans l’éthique. L’idée proposée dans cet article est de modifier le réalisme critique en réalisme critique-constructif. “Critical realism” in its many variations retains an important position in today’s scientific and theological debate. While advanced by Ian Barbour, John Polkinghorne and Arthur Peacocke, an analysis of its origin and meaning leads to the question of whether this position proposed by scientist-theologians misses an intrinsic feature of the personal dimension of reality, incorporated in the human sciences. Considering social science’s insight that persons responsible for their conclusions and actions drive the process of science, the ethical aspect of science may not be overlooked. To integrate these aspects into a coherent position requires a more differentiated epistemological model, grounded in ethics. The idea proposed in this paper is to modify critical realism into constructive-critical realism.
Journal Article
TCM und westliche Medizin – zwei Aspekte menschlichen Denkens
Falls man von der verbreiteten Maxime ausgeht, es könne nur eine Wissenschaftstheorie richtig und alle anderen müssten dann falsch sein, verzweifelt man an der Traditionellen Chinesischen Medizin (TCM). Der konstruktive Realismus hingegen legitimiert die Grundlagen der TCM, indem er besagt, es können ohne Weiteres mehrere Wissenschaftstheorien nebeneinander bestehen, abhängig von zeitlichem und kulturellem Kontext. Mehr noch, er nimmt die Anwendung der TCM-Theorien als Beispiel für seine Gültigkeit. So zeigt sich beispielsweise, dass TCM, angewandt nach den Regeln der modernen Westlichen Medizin, wirkungslos ist. Durch Anwendung der TCM-Grundlagen gelingt es aber auch heute noch, bislang unbekannte Krankheiten zu behandeln, wie an Beispielen zu Encephalitis B, SARS etc. gezeigt wird.
Anyone basing him- or herself on the widely accepted maxim according to which no more than one theory of science can be right and, consequently, any others need to be wrong, might despair of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Constructive realism, however, legitimizes the basis of TCM, arguing there was no reason why various theories of sciences should not co-exist, depending on the temporal and cultural context. Moreover, the application of TCM-theories is taken as an example of its validity. TCM proved to be ineffective if applied according to the rules of Western Medicine. Yet even today, by application of the basics of TCM we succeed in treating hitherto unknown diseases. This will be shown by examples relating to Encephalitis B, SARS and others.
Journal Article
Realist constructivism
Realism and constructivism, two key contemporary theoretical approaches to the study of international relations, are commonly taught as mutually exclusive ways of understanding the subject. Realist Constructivism explores the common ground between the two, and demonstrates that, rather than being in simple opposition, they have areas of both tension and overlap. There is indeed space to engage in a realist constructivism. But at the same time, there are important distinctions between them, and there remains a need for a constructivism that is not realist, and a realism that is not constructivist. Samuel Barkin argues more broadly for a different way of thinking about theories of international relations, that focuses on the corresponding elements within various approaches rather than on a small set of mutually exclusive paradigms. Realist Constructivism provides an interesting new way for scholars and students to think about international relations theory.
eBook