Pulse Of Freedom Research Articles

A critical realist analysis of consent to surgery for children, human nature and dialectic: the pulse of freedom

ABSTRACTConsent can only be voluntary, freely given and uncoerced. Can this legal adult standard also apply to children? High-risk surgery is seldom a wanted choice, but compared with the dangers of the untreated problem, surgery can become the least unwanted option. Critical realism helps to reveal explicit and hidden levels of informed and voluntary consent at empirical, actual and real levels, on the four planes of social being and through the four-stage dialectic. Instead of starting with the rational-legal adult patient standard of consent, and assessing how young children fail this, understanding of consent could start at the other end of life. What does innate physical-social-moral-intuitive human nature in the emotional embodied person tell us about the meaning and purpose of consent/refusal for self-preservation, for avoiding suffering and promoting wellbeing? This discussion paper considers examples of life-giving treatment for children, and ethical dilemmas including one of conjoined twins, when only one child could survive separation.

Dialectic Critical Realism: Grounded Values and Reflexivity in Social Science Research

Critical realism emerged from the philosophical writings of Roy Bhaskar, and has evolved into a philosophy of social science research using the model of “dialectical critical realism” (DCR) which begins with the researcher’s assumptions that the structures being researched have a real, ontological grounding which is independent of the researcher. This approach has proved fruitful in British and European social science research, but has had less influence in North America. We outline DCR’s four-level model for understanding society and its changing social structures through “the pulse of freedom”. DCR has been used by Marxists, Muslims, Catholics and secular scholars who engage fruitfully in morphogenic dialogues leading to a critical realist understanding of society and social research, which transcends positivist and social constructionist models. Examples of DCR’s application in the fields of childhood research, child abuse, education, and research on organisations are outlined to illustrate the working of this new research paradigm. We are enthusiastic in our advocacy of DCR as a model of qualitative research, and for constructing models of positive social change, and are particularly impressed by the substantive and theoretical expositions of DCR by Priscilla Anderson, Matthew Wilkinson and Margaret Archer, whose work we document and review.

The Metaphysics of a Contemporary Islamic Shari'a: A MetaRealist Perspective

The philosophy of metaReality and, in particular, ideas of transcendence can ‘underlabour’ for the re-enchantment of Islamic praxis, ethics and law by helping to uncover in a systematic, non-arbitrary way the spiritual objectives (maqāsid) inherent in the basic beliefs, practices and obligations of Islam. The commonly accepted elements of the Islamic legal pathway (Shari'a), such as the obligation of marriage, far from being inhibiting, can help humans access the dialectical pulse of freedom and the emancipatory meaning inherent tendentially in human relationships. Thus, the Islamic Shari'a, underlaboured by the philosophy of metaReality, rather than a symbol of legal backwardness and inflexibility, can be conducive once again to greater personal ontological wholeness and collective human flourishing.

Freedom, Dialectic and Philosophical Anthropology

In this article I present an original interpretation of Roy Bhaskar’s project in Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom. His major move is to separate an ontological dialectic from a critical dialectic, which in Hegel are laminated together. The ontological dialectic, which in Hegel is the self-unfolding of spirit, becomes a realist and relational philosophical anthropology. The critical dialectic, which in Hegel is confined to retracing the steps of spirit, now becomes an active force, dialectical critique, which interposes into the ontological dialectic at the ‘fourth dimension’ of a naturalistically reconfigured account of relational human nature, agency. This account allows Bhaskar to explain and vindicate the crucial role social criticism must play in any realistic project of self-emancipation, and to create a space that didn’t exist in Hegel for an open-ended concrete utopianism. Freedom is thus the actualization of human nature, but is not automatic: the relation of human nature to freedom is mediated historically through dialectical critique, which, informed by concrete utopianism, can have emancipatory power.

Able to Live, Laugh and Love

The autobiographical documentary film "18q - a valuable life", is one attempt to redefine the place of disability in contemporary western society. My work presents some key moments in my life and that of my family since the birth of my youngest child, Allycia in 1995. Allycia was born with a rare genetic condition affecting the 18th chromosome resulting in her experiencing the world somewhat differently to the rest of the family. The condition, which manifests in a myriad of ways with varying levels of severity, affects individuals' physical and intellectual development (Chromosome 18, n. pag.). While the film outlines the condition and Allycia's medical history, the work is primarily concerned with the experiences of the family and offering an alternate story of disability as "other". Drawing on Rosemarie Garland Thomson's notion of shape structuring story ("Shape") and Margrit Shildrick's discussion of becoming vulnerable as theoretical foundations, I reflect on how the making of the film has challenged my previously held views about disability and ultimately about myself.

Dialectics of Utopia and the Pulse of Freedom

This paper demonstrates that the historical materialist framework deployed in Utopia Ltd. is implicitly critical realist at the level of social ontology. It supplies critical realist concepts that are only implicit in the analysis, for example ‘the pulse of freedom’, and suggests a provisional critical realist typology of utopian epochs on the basis of the one that Beaumont implicitly deploys, thereby demonstrating that critical realism can sharpen, deepen and add a more adequate philosophical rationale to substantive Marxist analysis even when, like Beaumont's, it is an outstanding example of its kind. By the same token, it shows that analyses such as Beaumont's can make important contributions to critical realism.

The nature of a transcendental argument: toward a critique of <I>Dialectic: the Pulse of Freedom</I>

Surprisingly, over the decade or so since its publication, Bhaskar's Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom has received relatively little in the way of systematic analysis either by critical realists or their critics. There have been, however, a number of critiques that have dealt with some of its themes and developments in a variety of contexts. In the following study, I assess the argument of Alex Callinicos. Callinicos' critique, though in many ways sympathetic, is fundamental to critical realism. Engaging with it provides a means to develop and clarify a number of arguments about aspects of critical realism in general and also provides a useful staging point to set forth a basic and consistent ordering of inquiry for a critique of DPF . The initial purpose of the analysis is not so much a defence of DPF but an assessment of the construction of an argument brought to bear on it. I argue that the form of the argument deployed is problematic in a way that detracts from the substance of the critique of the content of DPF (I make no comment here on its relation to the later spiritual turn). This is not to suggest that DPF is immune to criticism but rather to suggest that a fuller analysis of the DPF argument and its potential remains to be made. The ultimate purpose of the analysis is to use this assessment of a strategy of critique—an argumentation schema or discursive form—to create an alternative approach to critically appraising DPF . Fundamental to Callinicos' argument is the nature of transcendental argument.

The Nature of a Transcendental Argument

Surprisingly, over the decade or so since its publication, Bhaskar's Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom has received relatively little in the way of systematic analysis either by critical realists or their critics. There have been, however, a number of critiques that have dealt with some of its themes and developments in a variety of contexts. In the following study, I assess the argument of Alex Callinicos. Callinicos' critique, though in many ways sympathetic, is fundamental to critical realism. Engaging with it provides a means to develop and clarify a number of arguments about aspects of critical realism in general and also provides a useful staging point to set forth a basic and consistent ordering of inquiry for a critique of DPF. The initial purpose of the analysis is not so much a defence of DPF but an assessment of the construction of an argument brought to bear on it. I argue that the form of the argument deployed is problematic in a way that detracts from the substance of the critique of the content of DPF (I make no comment here on its relation to the later spiritual turn). This is not to suggest that DPF is immune to criticism but rather to suggest that a fuller analysis of the DPF argument and its potential remains to be made. The ultimate purpose of the analysis is to use this assessment of a strategy of critique—an argumentation schema or discursive form—to create an alternative approach to critically appraising DPF. Fundamental to Callinicos' argument is the nature of transcendental argument.

The Pulse of Freedom? Bhaskar's Dialectic and Marxism

The Pulse of Freedom? Bhaskar's Dialectic and Marxism

The Documentary Photographer as Creator

The Documentary Photographer as Creator

Reclaiming reality: a critical introduction to contemporary philosophy

Originally published in 1989, Reclaiming Reality still provides the most accessible introduction to the increasingly influential multi-disciplinary and international body of thought, known as critical realism. It is designed to underlabour both for the sciences, especially the human sciences, and for the projects of human emancipation which such sciences may come to inform; and provides an enlightening intervention in current debates about realism and relativism, positivism and poststucturalism, modernism and postmodernism, etc. Elaborating his critical realist perspective on society, nature, science and philosophy itself, Roy Bhaskar shows how this perspective can be used to undermine currently fashionable ideologies of the Right, and at the same time, to clear the ground for a reinvigorated Left. Reclaiming Reality contains powerful critiques of some of the most important schools of thought and thinkers of recent years—from Bachelard and Feyerabend to Rorty and Habermas; and it advances novel and convincing resolutions of many traditional philosophical problems. Now with a new introduction from Mervyn Hartwig, this book continues to provide a straightforward and stimulating introduction to current debates in philosophy and social theory for the interested lay reader and student alike. Reclaiming Reality will be of particular value not only for critical realists but for all those concerned with the revitalization of the socialist emancipatory project and the renaissance of the Marxist theoretical tradition. Roy Bhaskar is the originator of the philosophy of critical realism, and the author of many acclaimed and influential works including A Realist Theory of Science, The Possibility of Naturalism, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation and Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom. He is an editor of the recently published Critical Realism: Essential Readings and is currently chair of the Centre for Critical Realism.

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties, 1920-1970s

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties, 1920-1970s

Alan Reitman, editor. <italic>The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties, 1920–1970s</italic>. Foreword by Ramsey Clark. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 1975 pp. 352 $12.50.

Alan Reitman, editor. <italic>The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties, 1920–1970s</italic>. Foreword by Ramsey Clark. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 1975 pp. 352 $12.50.

The Pulse of Freedom. American Liberties: 1920-1970

The Pulse of Freedom. American Liberties: 1920-1970

Civil liberties. The pulse of freedom: American liberties, 1920–1970s. Edited by alan Reitman. W. W. Norton & Company. 55 Fifth Avenue, New York 10003, 1975. 352 pp. $12.50

Civil liberties. The pulse of freedom: American liberties, 1920–1970s. Edited by alan Reitman. W. W. Norton & Company. 55 Fifth Avenue, New York 10003, 1975. 352 pp. $12.50

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties: 1920-1970s

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties: 1920-1970s

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties, 1920-1970s

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties, 1920-1970s

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties: 1920s-1970s edited by Alan Reitman (Norton; 352 pp.; $12.50)

The Pulse of Freedom: American Liberties: 1920s-1970s edited by Alan Reitman (Norton; 352 pp.; $12.50)