Critical Realism, Interdisciplinarity and Well-being: A Guest Lecture by Professor Roy Bhaskar

Contemporary critical realism is a philosophical approach developed by Roy Bhaskar which underpins a commitment to human emancipation. His work has sought to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and fixed methodological positions, and provides a framework for bringing together our understanding of explanatory mechanisms that may be operating at different levels (or scales) of reality. He is World Scholar at the University of London Institute of Education, and Director of the newly founded International Centre for Critical Realism. He is the author of many acclaimed and influential works including Plato, etc.: The Problems of Philosophy and Their Resolution; Reflections On Meta-Reality; A Realist Theory of Science; The Possibility of Naturalism; Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation; Reclaiming Reality and Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom; The Formation of Critical Realism; and The Formation of Critical Realism (with Mervyn Hartwig).

Much of Roy’s recent work has been concerned with applying a critical realist approach to concrete issues of interdisciplinary research, both within and beyond the field of social science – for example, turning a critical realist lens on the complex issues surrounding climate change. His forthcoming book, Interdisciplinarity and Well-Being (co-authored with Berth Danermark), focuses on issues and perspectives in relation to health and well-being.

As our work becomes ever more interdisciplinary – academics, scholars and students alike should take this opportunity to hear from one of the founders of this powerfully innovative approach – and learn how critical realism may offer a more sophisticated basis for analysing complex concrete phenomena.

Roy will deliver his guest lecture together with an open invitation for questions from the audience.

Refreshments will be available after the guest lecture.

Cost: Free of charge