Realist Ontology Research Articles

From religious studies to worldview studies

ABSTRACTThis essay uses the ‘big questions’ embedded in ways of life and implicitly answered in goal directed action to address the future of the study of religion. It locates Religious Studies as a subset of Worldview Studies, defined in terms of big questions, in order to offer an evenhanded basis for comparing religious and nonreligious worldviews. Defining worldviews in terms of big questions highlights the evolved world-making capacities we share with other animals and upends the top-down approach that privileges systematized worldviews. An evolutionary perspective not only links the humanities and the sciences, but also suggests the priority of the nonreflective answers to big questions embedded in lived worldviews and ways of life. It presupposes a critical realist ontology, which embeds constructivism within a naturalistic perspective, and enables a variety of accounts of why things are the way they are that can be grounded (at least distally) in evolutionary theory.

How Quantum Ontology and Q Methodology Can Revitalise Agency in IR

This article brings Alexander Wendt's (2015) ‘quantum social ontology’ into the realm of empirical International Relations (IR) research by coupling it with Q methodology. It shows how Wendt's ontology and Q methodology share a central interest in complex agency and are inherently allied in terms of principles and purposes. The quantum view has catalysed conversation within IR and social sciences more broadly, but that debate has remained almost exclusively on a theoretical level. This article shows that there is potential for empirical research in this area regardless of whether one considers the quantum view to be an analogy or ontological reality. Q methodology's grounding ideas align with quantum physics and the quantum social ontology, e.g. in the fashion it conceives of subjective states of mind and their measurement. Practical examples of Q methodological work are presented to illustrate the quantum concepts in a social scientific setting. The article argues for a broader study of political subjectivity within IR through a notion of personhood, which opens up vast potentialities for agency as well as for breaking free of determinism, and fixed notions of human nature as well as ostensibly fixed understandings of advantaged or disadvantaged subject positions.

Exploring the Strategic Role of Infrastructural Choices on Manufacturing Performance: Evidence from Kenya Sugar Sector

Technological developments in the sugar manufacturing sector require that the managers of these manufacturing firms devise strategies and make astute infrastructural choices in order to ensure survival, growth and improve manufacturing performance of the firm. This requires manufacturing firms to devise manufacturing technological advancements, frequent innovations, as well as rapid developments in their infrastructural capacities. The purpose of the study was to explore the strategic role of infrastructural choices in supporting manufacturing performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to: assess the effect of work force on performance, examine the effect of policies on performance, to explore the effect of communication on performance, and to determine the effect of innovation on performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. Anchored on Strategic and Routine Based theories, the study adopted both descriptive and experimental research designs anchored on realism ontology, and used both quantitative and qualitative approach. The unit of analysis was sugar manufacturing plant. The respondents were sought through both purposive and simple random sampling strategies, yielding a sample of 165 respondents. Structured questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect primary data. Data was processed both descriptively and inferentially using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS version 21. EFA, correlation analysis and regression analysis, were equally used, while qualitative data analysis was done through expert judgment, scenario mapping and critical thinking. The overall study results revealed that infrastructural choices have significant effect on manufacturing performance. Keywords : Infrastructural choices, Decision areas, manufacturing performance. DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/11-28-10 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

The causal role of ideology and Cultural Systems in radicalisation and de-radicalisation

ABSTRACTThe concepts of radicalisation and de-radicalisation are primarily defined by the assumption they make that there is a causal relationship between ideas and action. However, the causal role of ideas in informing behaviour has been strongly contested and has thus far eluded and undermined radicalisation and de-radicalisation conceptually and practically. The following article provides a theoretical basis for identifying the causal relationship between ideas and action through Margaret Archer’s critical realist ontology. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Northern Ireland, the article identifies processes of ideational causal reproduction and morphogenesis in the Provisional Irish Republican Army’s thinking on armed struggle during its transition away from armed violence. It argues that the adoption of the Armalite and Ballot Box strategy in the 1980s introduced a contradiction in the movement’s ideology and that the movement was pressured to address this contradiction through three corrective cycles throughout the peace-process, subsequently softening its position on armed struggle.

“The Death of Metaphysics” as Metametaphysics

Over the years, many philosophers have proclaimed the death of metaphysics, the death of that area of philosophy concerned with the study of reality as such. But what exactly do they mean by this? What does this death-of-metaphysics idea imply? In this paper, I offer a way to articulate this idea by formulating it as a metametaphysical thesis about the non-substantivity of metaphysical claims. I argue that given this formulation such a metametaphysical thesis seems implausible.
 References
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 Chalmers David, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman, eds. Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundation of Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
 Chalmers, David. “Verbal Disputes.” The Philosophical Review 120, (2011): 475–513.
 Chalmers, David. “Ontological Anti-Realism,” in Metametaphysics, 2009, 77-129.
 Hirsch, Eli. “Quantifier Variance and Realism.” Philosophical Issues 12, (2002): 51-73.
 Jenkins, Carrie, “What is Ontological Realism?” Philosophical Compass 5, (2010): 880-890.
 Lowe, E. J. The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity, and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
 Manley, David. “Introduction: A Guided Tour of Metametaphysics.” In Metametaphysics, 2009, 1-37.
 Shoemaker, Sydney. “Time without Change.” Journal of Philosophy 66, (1969): 363-381.
 Sider, Theodore. “Ontological Realism.” In Metametaphysics, 2009, 384-423.

Theory of communication in the space of philosophy and scientific thought as a determinant of the analysis of R. Wagner’s creative process

Theory of communication in the space of philosophy and scientific thought as a determinant of the analysis of R. Wagner’s creative process

Is, ought and being careful what you wish for

This brief commentary on Henry Wai-chung Yeung’s “Rethinking Mechanism and Process in the Geographical Analysis of Uneven Development” makes three points. First, the commentary supports the article’s assertions that ‘analytical rigor’ is compromised when process and mechanism are conflated, that causal mechanisms are under- theorized in much economic geography, and that a latent realist ontology often lurks beneath interpretive and process-based approaches. Second, it explores the inherent hurdles that a revival of critical realism presents for efforts of engaged pluralism given geography’s contending perspectives on ontology and epistemology and multiple social and substantive theories. Third, the commentary concludes with a hopeful yet cautionary tale of what multidisciplinary engagement on causal mechanisms might entail given the ‘rigor mortis’ mainstream orthodoxy elsewhere in the social sciences.

Translating divinity

ABSTRACTThis article examines the 16th-17th century Malay poet Hamzah Fansuri as a figure at the threshold between not only two religious traditions, but also two linguistic worlds. Hamzah Fansuri is well known for introducing the Sufi poetic tradition to Malay-speaking audiences, translating the Arabic thought of Ibn al-ʿArabī into Malay verse. Writing in Jawi, he frequently employed Arabic words and bilingual puns. This article explores how, through his puns, Hamzah made use of the incommensurabilities of the Arabic and Malay languages to draw attention to the infinite and incomprehensible difference between God and humans, while showing how everything that exists does so by virtue of its participation in the reality of wujūd, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s term for God’s being, which is identical to God’s being found. Hamzah’s practice of translation and his puns is then used to bridge a divide in western theories of translation represented by Walter Benjamin and Paul Ricoeur’s work. Whereas Benjamin emphasises an ontological reality that opens up through the process of translation and Ricoeur emphasises an epistemological process, Hamzah collapses the distinction through wujūd, being and finding. Hamzah’s puns can be understood as a translation that allow the incomprehensible real to be gestured at through language, as in Benjamin, even as it involves the reader in an unending hermeneutical process, like Ricoeur.

Emergence and Evidence: A Close Look at Bunge’s Philosophy of Medicine

In his book “Medical Philosophy: Conceptual issues in Medicine”, Mario Bunge provides a unique account of medical philosophy that is deeply rooted in a realist ontology he calls “systemism”. According to systemism, the world consists of systems and their parts, and systems possess emergent properties that their parts lack. Events within systems may form causes and effects that are constantly conjoined via particular mechanisms. Bunge supports the views of the evidence-based medicine movement that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) provide the best evidence to establish the truth of causal hypothesis; in fact, he argues that only RCTs have this ability. Here, we argue that Bunge neglects the important feature of patients being open systems which are in steady interaction with their environment. We show that accepting this feature leads to counter-intuitive consequences for his account of medical hypothesis testing. In particular, we point out that (i) the confirmation of hypotheses is inherently stochastic and affords a probabilistic account of both confirmation and evidence which we provide here; (ii) RCTs are neither necessary nor sufficient to establish the truth of a causal claim; (iii) testing of causal hypotheses requires taking into account background knowledge and the context within which an intervention is applied. We conclude that there is no “best” research methodology in medicine, but that different methodologies should coexist in a complementary fashion.

The constitution of objectivities in consciousness in ideas I and ideas II

In this paper, I present the difficulty in the phenomenology of explaining the constitution of objectivities in consciousness. In the context of phenomenological reduction, constitution has to be understood as unveiling the universal and necessary essences. Recognized by Husserl in Ideas I and named as functional problems, the constitution of objectivities refers at first to individual consciousness, and then to an intersubjective one. In Ideas II, the phenomenologist explains how the constitution of nature, psyche, and spirit occurs. This process begins by assuming three premises: the ontological realism, the regularity of nature, and the transcendental idealism. In this process, the ego, apart from constituting objects (the body, the psyche, and the others), constitutes itself. The objects of material reality are constituted through aesthetic synthesis which unifies singularities and contextualizes the lived experience. The body, as a perceptive organ, perceives the exterior, and the location of the sensory stimulus is the soul. The soul is a real and transcendent object, which is linked to physical things that are constituted in a solipsistic way or intersubjectively. Empathy allows the subject to recognize the consciousness of the alter ego as capable of spontaneous movements and actions, a co-presence sharing the same horizons. Thus, through the theoretical attitude, the physical world is perceived, and through the spiritual attitude the spiritual world is perceived, a living world shared by free intelligent beings. For this, intersubjectivity fulfills a fundamental role, because only in the relationship with the other does the identity of the objects, of the other, and of the self become evident.

Revisioning the Fifth Element. Can critical realism reconcile competence and Bildung for a more sustainable twenty-first-century education?

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the concepts of competence and Bildung in contemporary education and how critical realism may contribute to reconciling these positions in a more sustainable theory of learning for the twenty-first century. Using the recent curriculum reform in Norway as a backdrop, the article discusses how unresolved disputes between competence and Bildung can provide fertile grounds for dichotomous theoretical positioning in research, short-sighted cherry-picking in policy and instrumental practice in schools. The author argues that it is possible, building on a critical realist ontology and learning environment, to resolve such disputes. Efforts to do so are needed to develop a better explanatory theory of learning and to mobilize research efforts to revision education as a protective force against unsustainable development.

Research paradigms and the politics of nursing knowledge: A reflective discussion.

A standard view would suggest that research is a neutral apolitical activity. It neutralizes external pressures by its fidelity to robust scientific methods. However, politics is an inevitable part of human knowledge. Our knowledge of the world is always mediated by human priorities. What matters is therefore a contested and political debate rather a neutral accumulation of factual data. How researchers manage this varies. Research paradigms are one way in which research engages with knowledge. They frame knowledge within epistemological and ontological philosophies. In this paper, I will explore this view in relation to neo-positivism, qualitative research, Foucault and critical realism. I will argue that if nursing knowledge is to be effective it needs to acknowledge the political, particularly in the context of neoliberalism. Healthcare systems are having to cope with a social world increasingly dominated by market fundamentalism, extreme levels of inequality and a rise in xenophobia. These forces are undermining the provision of ethically sound health care, misdirecting research practice and contributing to a discourse of dehumanization. These forces need to be challenged politically and I will argue that epistemologically diverse approaches, alongside a realist ontology can provide a way forward for nursing research.

A dialectical vision of mathematical models of complex systems

Purpose Mathematical models are constructed at the interface between practice, experience and theories. The function of models puts us on guard against the privilege granted to what is accepted as abstract and formal, and at the same time puts us on guard against a static and phenomenological conception of knowledge. The epistemology of models does not suppress in any way the objectives of science: only, a dogmatic conception concerning truth is removed, and dynamic and dialectical aspects of monitoring are stressed to establish the most viable model. The purpose of this paper is to examine hybrid methodologies (inductive-deductive) that may either propose hypothetical causal relations and seek support for them in field data or detect causal relations in field data and propose hypotheses for the relations detected. Design/methodology/approach The authors follow a dialectical analysis for a type of inductive-deductive model. Findings In this work, the authors present an inductive-deductive methodology whose practical result satisfies the Hegelian dialectic. The consequent implication of their mutual reciprocal integration produces abstractions from the concrete that enable thought. The real problem in this case is a given ontological system or reality. Originality/value The essential elements of the models – variables, equations, simulation and feedback – are studied using a dialectic Hegelian theory.

Qualitative Research In Online Language Learning: What Can It Do?

This article explores the theoretical foundations of qualitative research in online language learning. It will look at the distinction between offline and online language learning and discuss whether different ways of knowledge generation are appropriate for those different learning environments. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies will be examined and their fit with various learning theories evaluated. Fundamental theoretical differences between epistemologies supporting a realist ontology and those favouring relativist ontologies will be presented and set in the context of online language learning research. Finally, an argument will be presented that in a sociocultural framework, going beyond quantitative research approaches is necessary to adequately understand the experiences of learners and teachers who share a common interest in novel digital environments.

Child safeguarding practices in light of the Deserving/Undeserving paradigm: A historical & contemporary analysis

BackgroundContemporary child protection systems in the UK need to be seen in light of the late nineteenth century child rescue movement, at a time of curbs in public spending, shifts in attitudes towards children’s welfare and the development of social work. There are similarities in the social, institutional and legal contexts, between the nineteenth century and today, centralising ‘deservedness’, that determined and determines children’s access to services. ObjectiveThe current article compares historical data and practices of children in care in the UK, encompassing 1881–1918, with contemporary data and practices, through the lens of the deserving/undeserving paradigm, inherited from the Poor Law of 1834. Participants and SettingDrawing on two data sets, namely historic children’s case files (N = 108), 1881–1918 from the Children’s Society (a philanthropic institution) highlighting the perception of custodians, doctors, professionals, as well as children and parents, and current data from interviews with young care leavers and safeguarding practitioners (N = 42), our research focuses on the most disadvantaged children with complex needs and damaging (pre)care experiences. MethodsData is analysed using thematic content analysis, framed within critical realist ontology, taking account of stratified non-linear dynamics of processes at different levels. Results and ConclusionIn both data sets the inability to support certain children is justified by referring to their complex needs and mental health and behavioural problems., Here, the child is held accountable and placed in the ‘undeserving’ category and consequently misses out on help and support, highlighting a need for awareness, and reflective and reflexive practice among practitioners/professionals.

Critical realism: A better way to think about middle powers

The fundamental problem in middle power scholarship lies in the research design that inadvertently permits bias, tautology, and circularity in the process of realizing the final outcome. Most researchers begin with a presumption that middle powers are countries in the middle range of the world order, capable and willing to play some constructive roles beyond their borders. Thus, they tend to select methods and data compatible with the given presumption, and reach predictable outcomes that determine middle power status by middle power behaviours, or middle power behaviours by middle power status. This is an epistemic fallacy where the ontic category of middle powers is defined by the epistemic knowledge of middle powers. Eventually, any countries with comparable characteristics/behaviours to the given presumption can be classified as “middle powers” conducting middle power behaviours. This article offers critical realism as a much-needed remedy to the stagnant middle power scholarship. It examines a group of countries already categorized as middle powers—Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and Australia (MIKTA)—under a critical realist framework, and finds that those countries and their activities cannot be generalized by the conventional middle power conception. In fact, the middle power rhetoric itself holds both a positive and negative ideological implication that requires further scrutiny. Yet, what makes the critical realist research design and its findings invaluable is the commitment to ontological realism, epistemological relativism, and judgmental rationalism that addresses the recurring epistemic fallacy. Therefore, the research findings are not merely new insights about “middle power” countries; they are a valid clue that can help uncover the “real” world that causes the so-called “middle power” categorization.

Introduction

This issue’s forum continues a lively discussion of Nigel Rapport’s notion of ‘cosmopolitan politesse’ that was previously featured in these pages in the summer of 2018. Rapport has long proposed this sort of politesse as a ‘form of virtue’ and ‘good manners’ (2018: 93) premised on ‘the ontological reality of human individuality’, which in turn necessitates an ‘interactional code’ according to which we must presume both ‘common humanity’ but also ‘distinct individuality’ to the point where we ‘classif[y] the Other in no more substantive fashion than this’ (92). Given anthropology’s history of intricately taxonomising humans according to various criteria, this is indeed a challenging proposal – all the more so in the context of legal anthropology, where being subject to specific norms and laws is often taken to be constitutive of distinctive subjectivities, sensibilities and survival strategies. In this issue, Don Gardner responds, directing his critical attention towards the notion of personhood undergirding Rapport’s plea for a revitalised Kantian liberalism in an era of resurgent xenophobia and ethnonationalism. In the process, we see two accomplished scholars taking positions within (and consciously outside of) a whole range of classical debates in the Western philosophical cannon with pressing relevance for contemporary legal anthropology, from nature versus nurture to free will versus determinism, individualism versus collectivism and structure versus agency.

The normative foundations of critical realism: a comment on Dave Elder-Vass and Leigh Price

ABSTRACTAs a comment on the debate between Dave Elder-Vass and Leigh Price, I propose a dialogue between Bhaskar and Habermas. If we could introduce critical realism into critical theory, we might be able to strengthen its critique of positivism. Conversely, if we introduce critical theory into critical realism, we might be able to defend with more force judgmental rationalism and moral realism. The intuition that will guide my reflections is that the dialogical reconstruction of Habermas and Bhaskar can uphold the ‘holy trinity’ of ontological realism, epistemic relativism and judgmental rationalism in the field of ethics. If we succeed in defending moral realism and judgmental rationalism, we will avoid the spectre of moral relativism.

Visualizing the Reality of Educational Research Participants Using an Amalgamation of Grounded and Positioning Theories

This article discussed the development of a framework that visualizes the ontological reality of educational research participants that is incumbent on existing grounded and positioning theories. The proposed framework constructs the ontological reality of participants from qualitative data collected in semi-structured interviews. This framework results in a visual representation of the educational participant’s reality. The article discussed how the use of versioning improves the auditability and replicability of the framework. The stepwise approach of this framework makes it an ideal candidate for automation, desirable to an emerging generation of qualitative researchers from the social sciences, including education and nursing.

A mobile health monitoring-and-treatment system based on integration of the SSN sensor ontology and the HL7 FHIR standard

BackgroundMobile health (MH) technologies including clinical decision support systems (CDSS) provide an efficient method for patient monitoring and treatment. A mobile CDSS is based on real-time sensor data and historical electronic health record (EHR) data. Raw sensor data have no semantics of their own; therefore, a computer system cannot interpret these data automatically. In addition, the interoperability of sensor data and EHR medical data is a challenge. EHR data collected from distributed systems have different structures, semantics, and coding mechanisms. As a result, building a transparent CDSS that can work as a portable plug-and-play component in any existing EHR ecosystem requires a careful design process. Ontology and medical standards support the construction of semantically intelligent CDSSs.MethodsThis paper proposes a comprehensive MH framework with an integrated CDSS capability. This cloud-based system monitors and manages type 1 diabetes mellitus. The efficiency of any CDSS depends mainly on the quality of its knowledge and its semantic interoperability with different data sources. To this end, this paper concentrates on constructing a semantic CDSS based on proposed FASTO ontology.ResultsThis realistic ontology is able to collect, formalize, integrate, analyze, and manipulate all types of patient data. It provides patients with complete, personalized, and medically intuitive care plans, including insulin regimens, diets, exercises, and education sub-plans. These plans are based on the complete patient profile. In addition, the proposed CDSS provides real-time patient monitoring based on vital signs collected from patients’ wireless body area networks. These monitoring include real-time insulin adjustments, mealtime carbohydrate calculations, and exercise recommendations. FASTO integrates the well-known standards of HL7 fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR), semantic sensor network (SSN) ontology, basic formal ontology (BFO) 2.0, and clinical practice guidelines. The current version of FASTO includes 9577 classes, 658 object properties, 164 data properties, 460 individuals, and 140 SWRL rules. FASTO is publicly available through the National Center for Biomedical Ontology BioPortal at https://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/FASTO.ConclusionsThe resulting CDSS system can help physicians to monitor more patients efficiently and accurately. In addition, patients in rural areas can depend on the system to manage their diabetes and emergencies.