Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YD, UK.
E-mail: ias@lancaster.ac.uk
The Bhaskar Lectures, January 2006
Ram Roy Bhaskar
Since 1982 Ram Roy Bhaskar has taught and lectured on philosophy and
adjacent subjects, especially sociology and the research methodology of
the social sciences, at the University of Oxford and universities and
institutes of higher education throughout the world. He has been recognized
as a brilliant innovative philosopher and originator of a new school of
philosophy, critical realism (see below) destined to be seen, alongside
empiricism, Kantianism, post-modernism, hermeneutics, critical theory,
etc., as an essential ingredient in university curricula in philosophy,
the social sciences and the humanities generally.
In 2003 he took up a fellowship at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences from where his work took on a more concrete and sociological turn. In 2004 he accepted an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Philosophy of Peace at the Centre for Peace Studies, University of Tromsoe, Norway. He is at present concerned with concrete issues of interdisciplinary research, in the field of what could be called 'applied critical realism' and is currently Guest Professorship in Philosophy and Social Science at Örebro University.
Critical realism
In a nutshell, critical realism can be thought of as a philosophy of science standing somewhere between positivism (with its empirical realist ontology) and postmodernism/poststructuralism (often with a strong social constructionist ontology). It rejects the former's preoccupation with (often inappropriate) quantification and measurement to the exclusion of other modes of enquiry, whilst rejecting the latter's tendency to downplay the role of non-linguistic, non-discursive, or non-semiotic phenomena. Critical realism is steadily making its way out of philosophy and social theory and into subjects like geography, sociology, economics, and more recently, management studies. Lancaster University is rapidly becoming known as the unofficial 'centre for critical realism' in several disciplines.
The 'Bhaskar Lectures' provide an exciting opportunity for staff and students, even those who do not favour critical realism, to access the latest thinking on 'applied critical realism' from the 'founder' of critical realism.
Calendar of lectures
Date |
Session |
Time |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Tuesday 10 January 2006 |
Session 1: The Formation of Critical Realism |
16:00-17:30 |
IAS Meeting Room 2-3 |
Thursday 12 January 2006 |
Session 2: The Development of Critical Realism |
16:00-17:30 |
IAS Meeting Room 2-3 |
Monday 16 January 2006 |
Session 3: Applied Critical Realism |
16:00-17:30 |
IAS Meeting Room 2-3 |
Wednesday 18 January 2006 |
Session 4: The frontiers of Critical Realism |
16:00-17:30 |
IAS Meeting Room 2-3 |
Related events
Date |
Session |
Time |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Friday 13 January 2006 |
LUMS & IAS Research Forum: Theory and
Practice |
16:00-17:30 |
Management School Leadership Centre Lecture Theatre 2 |
Tuesday 17 January 2006 |
Roundtable with Roy Bhaskar |
16:00-17:30 |
IAS Meeting Room 1 |
| Annual Research Programme | News & Events Archive |
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