CRITICAL REALISM IN THE SOCLIAL SCIENCES

Critical realism is gradually gaining ground in the social sciences. In this interview the founder of the critical realist philosophy of science, Roy Bhaskar, gives an account of the overall developments in his thought. Having briefly accounted for his background and reasons for becoming a philosopher and having explained how he took reflections on certain natural scientific practices as his starting point in the development of his philosophy, Bhaskar moves on to outline the main differences between the natural and the social sciences and to discuss his attempt to transcend the dualisms of the social sciences. The critical realist approach to the agency-structure dualism is contrasted with Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration, and Bhaskar explains what he sees as the main difference between critical realism and poststructuralist discourse theory. Towards the end of the interview, Bhaskar deals with the latest developments in his thought, and he reflects on the state of crisis in today's world.