Roy Bhaskar Quotes
Ram Roy Bhaskar was a British philosopher and the principal founder of the school of critical realism. After studies at Oxford under Rom Harre, he produced his foundational A Realist Theory of Science, which argued that the practices of the natural sciences are intelligible only on the supposition of a stratified, mind-independent world of structures, generative mechanisms, and events. The quotes below are attributed to Roy Bhaskar, organized by topic.
Roy Bhaskar on Knowledge
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Attributed to Roy Bhaskar:
“Science presupposes a world that has structures independent of our knowledge of it.”
Roy Bhaskar on Nature
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Attributed to Roy Bhaskar:
“Open systems are the rule, closed systems the exception.”
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Attributed to Roy Bhaskar:
“Reality has depth: actual events ride on underlying causal mechanisms.”
Roy Bhaskar on Politics
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Attributed to Roy Bhaskar:
“Emancipation requires a science of social structures, not just of behavior.”
Roy Bhaskar on Truth
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Attributed to Roy Bhaskar:
“Critical realism takes both reality and critique seriously.”