Fallibilism and Ontology in Tuukka Kaidesoja’s Critical Realist Social Ontology

Authors

  • Daniel Little University of Michigan-Dearborn

Keywords:

philosophy of social science, critical realism, emergence, naturalism, causal power

Abstract

This article addresses Tuukka Kaidesoja’s critique of the philosophical presuppositions of Roy Bhaskar’s theories of critical realism. The article supports Kaidesoja’s naturalistic approach to the philosophy of the social sciences, including the field of social ontology. The article discusses the specific topics of fallibilism, emergence, and causal powers. I conclude that Kaidesoja’s book is a valuable contribution to current debates over critical realism.

References

Bhaskar, Roy (1975): A Realist Theory of Science. Leeds: Leeds Books.

Bhaskar, Roy (1989): The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Human Sciences, Second edition. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Boyd, Richard (1990): “Realism, Approximate Truth, and Philosophical Method”. In: C. Wade Savage (Ed.): Scientific Theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Cruickshank, Justin (Ed.) (2003a): Critical Realism: The Difference in Makes, Routledge Studies in Critical Realism. London; New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203512302

Cruickshank, Justin (Ed.) (2003b): Realism and Sociology: Anti-Foundationalism, Ontology, and Social Research, Routledge Studies in Critical Realism. London; New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203116708

Elder-Vass, David (2010): The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761720

Elder-Vass, Dave, Mervyn Hartwig, and Daniel Little (2013): Replies by Elder-Vass and Hartwig to Cruickshank/Little. Understanding Society. Accessed in 2014. (http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2013/12/replies-by-elder-vass-and-hartwig-to.html).

Groff, Ruth (2008): Revitalizing Causality: Realism about Causality in Philosophy and Social Science, Routledge Studies in Critical Realism. London; New York: Routledge.

Groff, Ruth (2013): Ontology Revisited: Metaphysics in Social and Political Philosophy, Ontological Explorations. London; New York: Routledge.

Harré, Rom and E. H. Madden (1975): Causal Powers: A Theory of Natural Necessity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Kaidesoja, Tuukka (2013): Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology, Ontological Explorations. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203753484

Little, Daniel (2009): “The Heterogeneous Social”. In: Mantzavinos, Chrysostomos (Ed.): Philosophy of the Social Sciences: Philosophical Theory and Scientific Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Little, Daniel (2011): Social Complexity. Understanding Society. Accessed in 2014. (http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2011/10/social-complexity.html).

Strawson, P. F. (1966): The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason’. London: Methuen.

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Published

2015-07-04

How to Cite

Little, Daniel. 2015. “Fallibilism and Ontology in Tuukka Kaidesoja’s Critical Realist Social Ontology”. Journal of Social Ontology 1 (2). Vienna, Austria:349-58. https://journalofsocialontology.org/index.php/jso/article/view/6869.

Issue

Section

Book Symposium