Conclusion

debating the issues

Amy E. Varela

pp. 148-176

in: Kathryn Dean, Jonathan Joseph, John M. Roberts, Colin Wight, Realism, philosophy and social science, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006

Abstract

In this conclusion we have decided to use a debating technique to explore points of convergence and difference. During the course of writing this book, we have found more differences between us than we were expecting to find. What brought us together was an interest in critical realist philosophy and above all a serious concern with its current development. We wished to put down in print the need to defend some of the ideas of critical realism while strongly rejecting most of the recent work (of Roy Bhaskar in particular). Indeed our initial plan was to call this book Reclaiming Realism. The aim was to set out what is useful in this tradition while criticising more recent work. The problem is that taking such an approach can end up with a narrowly defined project. We wanted to show the usefulness of a critical realist approach by relating it to broader issues in social science, and to Marxist ideas in particular.