The Problem Of Critical Ontology: Bhaskar Contra Kant Hardcover

Bhaskar Contra Kant

By pitting Roy Bhaskar's attempt to rehabilitate ontology in the philosophy of science against Kant's attempt to replace traditional ontology with an account of cognitive experience, this book defends the possibility of critical ontology. After an introduction to Kant's and Bhaskar's conceptions of ontology and philosophical method, it is argued that Kant's transcendental idealism cannot be defended as a non-ontological doctrine since it harbours problematic ontological assumptions. Then, it is argued that a properly modified version of Bhaskar's 'transcendental analysis of experimental activity' makes a convincing case that natural necessity is constituted by transcendentally real causal powers instead of a priori conceptual synthesis. The result is a critique of transcendental idealism and defence of transcendental realism that should appeal to those interested in critical realism, Kant's theoretical philosophy, speculative realism and the critique of 'correlationism', or the relation between natural science, metaphysics, and epistemology.

9781137002716

English

Palgrave Macmillan

187

DUSTIN MCWHERTER is Lecturer in Philosophy at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He has published articles in Kantian Review and Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy.

Dustin Mcwherter

“It explores in detail the Kantian position to test its capacity to respond to a critical realist variety of critique based on transcendental argument. … The Problem of Critical Ontology is also more broadly a contribution to a wider body of work that is expanding the breadth and depth of argumentation within and about critical realism – which is surely a sign of a thriving discourse.” (Jamie Morgan, Journal of Critical Realism, Vol. 15 (1), February, 2016)