Anti-foundationalism and social ontology : towards a realist sociology
My concern in this thesis is with the transcendental question concerning the condition of possibility for social science. I argue that for social scientific knowledge to obtain one must: (1) have a conception of knowledge formation as theoretically mediated and fallible; and (2), social scientific knowledge claims must be about an object of study which conceptualises social structure as an enablement as well as an external constraint upon agency. This means: (1) arguing for an anti-foundational epistemology, which avoids becoming truth-relativism, by being complemented with a metaphysical realist ontology (giving us the position of 'realist anti-foundationalism'); and (2), using a social realist meta-theory of emergent properties to explain how methodology (i. e. the construction of specific theories and empirical research) has a conceptually mediated and fallible access to social reality. Developing a critical (i. e. transcendental) examination of the presuppositions of social scientific knowledge also means, afortiori, using realism as an underlabourer. The negative underlabouring role is to proscribe theories based on some form of epistemic immediacy, or being-knowing identity. It therefore means rejecting
Cruickshank, Justin
B Philosophy (General) ; HM Sociology
Anti-foundationalism and social ontology : towards a realist sociology. My concern in this thesis is with the transcendental question concerning the condition of possibility for social science. I argue that for social scientific knowledge to obtain one must: (1) have a conception of knowledge formation as theoretically mediated and fallible; and (2), social scientific knowledge claims must be about an object of study which conceptualises social structure as an enablement as well as an external constraint upon agency. This means: (1) arguing for an anti-foundational epistemology, which avoids becoming truth-relativism, by being complemented with a metaphysical realist ontology (giving us the position of 'realist anti-foundationalism'); and (2), using a social realist meta-theory of emergent properties to explain how methodology (i. e. the construction of specific theories and empirical research) has a conceptually mediated and fallible access to social reality. Developing a critical (i. e. transcendental) examination of the presuppositions of social scientific knowledge also means, afortiori, using realism as an underlabourer. The negative underlabouring role is to proscribe theories based on some form of epistemic immediacy, or being-knowing identity. It therefore means rejecting
anti foundationalism social ontology towards realist sociology concern transcendental question_concern condition_possibility social_science argue social_scientific knowledge obtain one_must conception knowledge_formation theoretically mediate fallible social_scientific knowledge claim must object study social_structure well external constraint upon agency mean argue anti foundational epistemology avoids become truth relativism complement metaphysical realist ontology give position realist_anti foundationalism use social realist meta theory emergent property explain construction specific theory empirical conceptually mediate fallible access social_reality developing critical transcendental examination presupposition social_scientific knowledge also mean use realism negative role theory base form epistemic immediacy being knowing identity therefore mean reject