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Roy Bhaskar's Critical Realism and the crisis of replication in psychology
April 08, 2025 · 49 min

In this episode, I interview Dr Rob Archer and we talk about Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism and how it deals with the crisis of replication.

 

*What is critical realism?

*What is the role of ontology?

*What is a transcendental argument?

*How does critical realism deal with the issue of replication?

*How has Bhaskar’s critical realism evolved over time and his spiritual turn.

*Where critical realism is going?

 

Resource mentioned in the episode.

 

Retiring Popper: Critical realism, falsificationism, and the crisis of replication

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09593543241250079

 

Critical realism, psychology, and the crisis of replication: A reply to Haig; Derksen & Morawski; and Trafimow

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09593543241279138

 

Replicating is difficult but necessary, and methodology can help

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09593543241265912

 

Haig, B. D. (2024). Should psychology adopt Bhaskar’s critical realist philosophy of science? Theory & Psychology, 34(5), 585-590. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241265727 (Original work published 2024)

 

Derksen, M., & Morawski, J. (2024). Replications are informative, particularly when they fail. Theory & Psychology, 34(5), 597-603. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241269697 

 

Roy Bhaskar’s works

The Possibility of Naturalism: A philosophical critique of the contemporary human sciences Reflections on metaReality The Order of Natural Necessity: A Kind of Introduction to Critical Realism From East To West: Odyssey of a Soul (Classical Texts in Critical Realism (Routledge Critical Realism) Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom

 

Margaret S. Archer book

Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach

 

Iceberg model

 

https://changemanagementinsight.com/iceberg-model-of-change-management/

 

Lipton’s Inference to the best explanation model

Lipton, P. (2017). Inference to the best explanation. A Companion to the Philosophy of Science, 184-193.