Ruth Porter Groff

Biographic Data

ID1285299
NAMERuth Porter Groff
GIVEN NAMESRuth Porter
FAMILY NAMEGroff
SIGNATUREGROFF R P
AFFILIATIONSSaint Louis University
ORCID0000-0002-3053-4068
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS23
TOTAL CITATIONS79
AUTHOR COUNT23
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1997
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX5

  • Book symposium: Celebrating the 50th publication anniversary of Roy Bhaskar’s A Realist Theory of Science

    Dave Elder-Va, Dave Elder-Vass et al.ARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2025

    Editor’s note: Roy Bhaskar’s first book, A Realist Theory of Science (RTS), which laid the conceptual foundations for what later came to be called critical realism, was published first in 1975. Th

  • Roundtable: Judgemental rationality in the critical realist project

    Open AccessK Robert Isaksen, Frédéric Vandenberghe et al.ARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2024

    The article is a lightly edited transcript of a digital roundtable discussion. The participants were invited based on their prior work on critical realism and epistemology. The roundtable discussion includes introductory statements on judgemental rationality by Jamie Morgan, Ruth Groff, Dorothea Schoppek, Leigh Price, and Frédéric Vandenberghe, followed by a discussion between the participants on a variety of topics related to judgemental rationa…

  • Does critical realism need the concept of three domains of reality? A roundtable

    Dave Elder-Va, T Bruce Fryer et al.ARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2023Cited by: 5References: 2

    The concept of the three domains of reality is widely used in empirical critical realist research. However, there has been little scrutiny of how the domains are conceptualized and what they contribute to critical realism and how they should be applied in empirical research. This paper involves four arguments. First, Tom Fryer and Cristián Navarrete argue that the three domains of reality are redundant, confusing, and unsupported by Bhaskar’s the…

  • Philosophy, metaphilosophy and ideology-critique: An interview with Ruth Porter Groff

    Open AccessRuth Porter Groff, Jamie MorganARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2022Cited by: 8References: 15

    In this interview, Ruth Groff discusses how she came to be a realist, her role as a community organizer, her relationship to critical realism, and various issues arising from her published work over the years. Discussion ranges across the nature of positivism and its legacy, the concept of falsehood, realism about causal powers, mind-independent reality, the history of philosophy, and the underlying interest in ideology-critique that runs through…

  • Conceptualizing causal powers: Activity, capacity, essence, necessitation

    Open AccessRuth Porter GroffARTICLESynthese2021Cited by: 3References: 12

  • The devil is in the categories: Metaphysics and social and political thought

    Open AccessRuth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal for the Theory of Social…2021References: 5

    It is often assumed that social and political thought have nothing to do with issues of concern to metaphysicians. I have referred to this assumption in the past as The Myth of Metaphysical Neutrality. I argue here that social and political theories have metaphysical positions built into them, such that to adopt a given social or political account commits one to that theory's implicit metaphysics ‐‐ and, conversely, that commitment to a given met…

  • Sublating the free will problematic: Powers, agency and causal determination

    Open AccessRuth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLESynthese2019Cited by: 5References: 12

  • On the Myth of Metaphysical Neutrality: Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize Lecture 2015

    Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2016

    In this lecture I argue that it is not possible for social scientists or others engaged in making causal claims about the world to be neutral with respect to the question of what causation is. One need not be in possession of a full-blown account, but one must know whether or not, in saying that something is the cause of a given outcome, one intends to say that it has actively produced or generated that outcome. Following Brian Ellis, I refer to …

  • Causal Mechanisms and the Philosophy of Causation

    Open AccessRuth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal for the Theory of Social…2016Cited by: 7References: 21

    Lack of clarity about underlying philosophical commitments leads to lack of clarity at other levels of analysis. Here I show that the literature on so‐called “causal mechanisms” is rife with conceptual problems, stemming from insufficient rigor with respect to the metaphysics of causation

  • Tuukka Kaidesoja on Critical Realist Transcendental Realism

    Open AccessRuth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal of Social Ontology2015Cited by: 1

    I argue that critical realists think pretty much what Tukka Kaidesoja says that he himself thinks, but also that Kaidesoja's objections to the views that he attributes to critical realists are not persuasive

  • After Hume: Realism about Powers in Contemporary Analytic Metaphysics

    Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2014

    Analytic metaphysics has taken a sharp turn away from Hume. Almost all at once, it seems, it has become acceptable — perhaps even fashionable — to believe in real causal powers. This is welcome news for those formerly lone metaphysicians who thought all along that Hume was wrong, but it is also good news for critical realists. The following is an introductory overview of some of the recent literature, via synopses (with commentary) of three antho…

  • Promotions

    Open AccessSusan McWilliams, Oxford Pacheco et al.ARTICLEPS Political Science & Politics2014

    An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button

  • Ontology Revisited: Metaphysics in Social and Political Philosophy

    Ruth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffBOOKOntology revisited2012

    1. The Myth of Metaphysical Neutrality, 2. Hume: Custom as Metaphysical Necessity, 3. J. S. Mill: Humeanism and the Perfection of Distinctively Human Capacities, 4. Kant and The Frankfurt School: Freedom as Escape from the Transcendental Subject, 5. Agents, Powers and Events: Humeanism and the Free Will Debate, 6. Metaphysics and the Capabilities Approach: Martha Nussbaum, Political Liberalism and the Ideal of Metaphysical Neutrality, 7. Powers, …

  • Ontology Revisited

    Ruth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffBOOKOntology revisited2012

    Groff's argument runs counter to the familiar anti-metaphysical habit. Social and political philosophy, she maintains, is not as metaphysically neutral as it may seem. Even the most deontological of theories connects up with an attendant set of philosophical commitments regarding what kinds of things exist, as a fundamental ontological matter, and what they are like. These are topics of interest not just to social and political philosophers, but …

  • Aristotelian Marxism/Marxist Aristotelianism: MacIntyre, Marx and the analysis of abstraction

    Open AccessRuth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEPhilosophy & Social Criticism2012References: 6

    I argue that Aristotelians who are sympathetic to the critique of liberal moral categories put forward by Alasdair MacIntyre ought to avail themselves of Marx's analysis of capitalism in Capital, Volume 1. Broadly speaking, there are two reasons for such a recommendation. First, Marx's account shows capitalism to be the sociological substrate for the evisceration of particularity (coupled with the hold instrumental reason) that so concerns MacInt…

  • Introduction to the Special Issue

    Ruth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2009

  • Revitalizing Causality: Realism About Causality in Philosophy and Social Science

    Ruth Porter Groff, S Mumford et al.BOOKRevitalizing causality2007Cited by: 9References: 1

    Particular objects and substances are causally powerful and causally responsive. They are able to do things and have things done to them. Dynamite is explosive: able to produce a dramatic bang, flash and flame when lit. A billiard ball is able to project other like objects when it strikes them and has sufficient momentum. Lysergic acid diethylamide is able to produce hallucinations in human beings but also able to turn litmus paper red

  • Taking Relativism Seriously

    Caroline New, John Roberts et al.ARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2005

  • Taking relativism seriously

    Caroline New, John Roberts et al.ARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2005

  • In Defence of Objectivity: On Realism, Existentialism and Politics. By Andrew Collier

    Ruth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEJournal of Critical Realism2004

  • Critical Realism, Post-positivism and the Possibility of Knowledge

    Ruth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffBOOKCritical Realism, Post-Positivism…2004Cited by: 27

    Groff defends 'realism about causality' through close discussions of Kant, Hilary Putnam, Brian Ellis and Charles Taylor, among others. In so doing she affirms critical realism, but with several important qualifications. In particular, she rejects the theory of truth advanced by Roy Bhaskar. She also attempts to both clarify and correct earlier critical realist attempts to apply realism about causality to the social sciences.By connecting issues …

  • The Truth of the Matter: Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism and the Concept of Alethic Truth

    Open AccessRuth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEPhilosophy of the Social Sciences2000Cited by: 12References: 1

  • Class Politics by any Other Name: Organizing the Unemployed

    Ruth Groff, Ruth Porter GroffARTICLEStudies in Political Economy1997Cited by: 2References: 4

    Times have changed. The old political paradigm, as Claus Offe has termed it, has given way. Social movements concerned with identity, the body and the natural world have superseded traditional class-based forms of collective action