Editing Roy Bhaskar (section)

{{Short description|English philosopher (1944–2014)}}
{{Primary sources|date=August 2023}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| era    = [[Contemporary philosophy]]
| name        = Roy Bhaskar
| image       = 
| caption     =
| birth_name  = Ram Roy Bhaskar
| birth_date  = {{birth date|df=yes|1944|05|15}} 
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=y|2014|11|19|1944|5|15}}
| birth_place = [[Teddington]], England
| death_place = [[Leeds]], England
| alma_mater  = {{ubl | [[Balliol College, Oxford]] | [[Nuffield College, Oxford]]}}
| school_tradition = [[Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Rom Harré]]
| main_interests = {{hlist | [[Epistemology]] | [[Ontology]] | [[philosophy of social science]]}}
| notable_ideas = {{hlist | [[Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)]] | [[transcendental realism]] | [[critical naturalism]]}}
}}
'''Ram Roy Bhaskar''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ə|ˈ|s|k|ɑːr}};<ref>{{YouTube|id=8YGHZPg-19k|Russ Volckmann: Roy Bhaskar Interview|time=0m19s}}</ref> 15 May 1944 – 19 November 2014) was an English [[philosopher of science]] who is best known as the initiator of the philosophical movement of [[Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)|critical realism]] (CR). Bhaskar argued that the task of science is "the production of the knowledge of those enduring and continually active mechanisms of nature that produce the phenomena of the world",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bhaskar|first=Roy|title=A realist theory of science|date=2008|publisher=Verso|isbn=978-1-84467-204-2|location=London|page=47|oclc=154707552}}</ref> rather than the discovery of quantitative laws, and that experimental science makes sense only if such mechanisms exist and operate outside the lab as well as inside it.

Roy Bhaskar is certainly the most prominent advocate for "critical realism," but he did not initiate either the term or the concept. The term was used earlier by Donald Campbell (1974/1988, p.&nbsp;432), and the concept of combining ontological realism and epistemological constructivism goes back at least to Herbert Blumer (1969).<ref>Blumer, H. (1969). The methodological position of symbolic interactionism. In H. Blumer, Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.</ref><ref>Campbell, D. T. (1974). Evolutionary epistemology. In P. A. Schlipp (Ed.), The philosophy of Karl Popper, pp.&nbsp;413–463. La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing Co.</ref> Bhaskar went on to apply that realism about mechanisms and causal powers to the philosophy of social science, and he also elaborated a series of arguments to support the critical role of philosophy and the human sciences.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bhaskar, Roy, 1944-2014.|title=Reclaiming reality: a critical introduction to contemporary philosophy|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-84331-4|location=London|pages=1–10|oclc=712652144}}</ref> According to Bhaskar, it is possible and desirable for the study of society to be scientific.

Bhaskar was a World Scholar at the [[Institute of Education]], [[University College London]].<ref name="Wordpress">{{cite web |url=https://roybhaskar.wordpress.com/ |title=Biography of Roy Bhaskar |website=roybhaskar.wordpress.com}}</ref>