On the intransitive objects of the social (or human) sciences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21159404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Howard Richards (0009-0004-0172-4470, Faculty of Management and Economics (FAE), University of Santiago (USACH), Santiago, Chile, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-16 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Critical Realism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1476-7430 • E-ISSN: 1572-5138 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14767430.2018.1426805 |
| OpenAlex | W2794012619 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 22 |
This paper strengthens Bhaskar’s case for the possibility of naturalism. Building on Bhaskar’s A Realist Theory of Science and The Possibility of Naturalism, and on more recent contributions by Douglas Porpora, it traces the evolution of Bhaskar’s concept of 'intransitive' and follows his suggestion to treat social structure as an intransitive generative mechanism analogous to the generative mechanisms of the natural sciences. It is suggested, building on Porpora, that the constitutive rules of the market are usefully regarded as generating an intransitive 'basic social structure.' That this same intransitive object is reasonably regarded as continuing to exist and act under different descriptions is illustrated by citing how different scholars have approached it with different concepts and vocabularies. It expands on Bhaskar’s first example of an intransitive object of social science, the mass unemployment that provided a ‘motor’ for Keynes, and on Porpora’s examples of the causal powers of social structures
Epistemology · Generative grammar · Linguistics · Naturalism · Sociology · Critical Realism in Sociology · Economic Theory and Institutions · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism
The general theory of employment, interest, and money
Essays in positive economics
Making Enemies
An Introduction to the Bootstrap
History of Economic Analysis
The Great Transformation
A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays
From the German Ideology
Reorienting Economics
Critical Realism
On the Construction of a Social Reality
Reconstructing Sociology
Eurocentrism
Realist Social Theory
The Causal Power of Social Structures
Economic theory and community development
A Realist Theory of Science
Cultural Rules and Material Relations
Speech Acts
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2021 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |