A Week with Roy Bhaskar at the CPS, 13th to 17th September 2004:

Tuesday, 14th September, 10:15-12:00, U-06 (Nedre Lysthus)
Critical realism in the social sciences
Public lecture – also part of the curriculum for the Masters in Peace & Conflict Transformation

Bhaskar introduces the philosophical and epistemological starting-point of critical realism. Critical realism rejects both the spurious objectivism of positivism and the radical idealism of some forms of postmodernism, and establishes an alternative ontology appropriate to critical social inquiry. This is explored here as a general methodology for the social sciences.

Recommended reading: ‘The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences’ (2000)

Tuesday, 14th September; 15:00-16:30; U-05
Reception for Dr. Roy Bhaskar
An informal get-together with light refreshments open to all interested faculty, students and press representatives

Wednesday, 15th September, 13:15-15:00, U-06
Peace research workshop: The Philosophy of peace – part one
Developing a philosophy of peace relevant to research and action

Wednesday, 15th September, 15:00-16:30, U-05
Informal meeting of participants in the peace research workshop
An informal get-together with light refreshments for workshop participants

Thursday, 16th September, 09:15-12:00, U-06
Peace research workshop: The Philosophy of peace – part two
‘How Can I Become an Effective Agent for Peace?’
Developing a philosophy of peace relevant to research and action (continued)

Friday, 17th September, 10:15-12:00, U-06
World politics seminar: Critical realism (and meta-reality) and peace studies
Public lecture co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science – also part of the curriculum for the Masters in Peace & Conflict Transformation

Critical realism, together with its further philosophical elaboration through the conception of meta-reality, is explored as a specific philosophy of, and strategy of inquiry and action in, the field of peace and conflict studies.

Recommended reading: ‘From Science to Emancipation: Alienation and the Actuality of Enlightenment’ (2002)

Friday, 17th September, 13:15-15:00, U-06
Case methodology
Closed seminar, open only to students taking SVF-3021: Integrated Peace Studies

Bhaskar in Tromsø