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Reclaiming Rational Theory Choice as Central: A Critique of Methodological Applications of Critical Realism

Isaksen, KR; (2016) Reclaiming Rational Theory Choice as Central: A Critique of Methodological Applications of Critical Realism. Journal of Critical Realism , 15 (3) pp. 245-262. 10.1080/14767430.2016.1169369. Green open access

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Abstract

My central claim is that texts introducing and explaining critical realism focus on its ontological insights, and even though issues of judgemental rationality and theory choice are central to research these often become peripheral and/or are not stated in the way Bhaskar presented them. This claim is defended by comparing Bhaskar's statements and arguments about theory choice to texts introducing critical realism and its potential research implications. The method of rational theory choice and the key criterion for it are presented: immanent critique combined with retroduction to determine whether a theory has greater explanatory power than its rivals, where greater explanatory power is defined as having greater (but not final) epistemic credibility because it can explain more significant phenomena and has a greater ability to integrate knowledge; and multitheoretic-linguality as a prerequisite for applying the criterion of greater explanatory power. Greater explanatory power may be assigned to competing theories, metatheories and interpretations. Lastly, a more detailed example of the disparity between Bhaskar's specifications for rational theory choice and those found in a methodology text is provided.

Type: Article
Title: Reclaiming Rational Theory Choice as Central: A Critique of Methodological Applications of Critical Realism
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/14767430.2016.1169369
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2016.1169369
Language: English
Additional information: © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecom-mons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided theoriginal work is properly cited.
Keywords: Greater explanatory power, immanent critque, judgemental rationality, multi-theoretic linguality, rational theory choice
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1527369
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