----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael JOHNSON" <johnsonmr1@Cardiff.ac.uk>
To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:34 PM
Subject: Activity theory, ontology and critical realism(!?)
Dear XMCA community,
Without wanting to stir up a hornets nest or sound stupid (fat chance) I
have been trying to work out my ideas about the philosophy of science -
shouldn't be too difficult ho-ho! Not that I presume that my ideas should or
are likely to remain fixed. I am just seeking a modest level of working
knowledge about ontology and epistemology (Masters dissertation deadline
looms - not to mention turning up at Seville and not being able to
understand a word of what is said!!). Does Activity Theory have a particular
answer to these questions? Pardon my ignorance for not even knowing whether
these are important questions for Activity Theory! My main source so far has
been Perspectives on Activity Theory. Yrjö Engeström quotes Roy Bhasker with
approval (p. 10). So does AT admit a (critical) realist ontology as asserted
in the paper by Jason Ferdinand (faculty staff at Liverpool Management
School)?
http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/research/ejrot/cmsconference/2003/proceedings/objects/ferdinand.pdf
where he says (on page 14):
"To enable our discussion of objects dialectical critical realism offers a
different discourse if you will, one where we may differentiate different
modes or moments of reality within a stratified ontology where change is
fundamental. This overcomes the limitations of discourse phenomenalism yet
avoids positivistic epistemic commitments. Furthermore what dialectical
critical realism brings is an alternative but complementary approach that
may be employed in connection with the four research traditions mentioned
earlier.This could resonate with Activity Theorists who's work is predicated
on Vygotsky's psychology, for as both Ilyenkov and Bakhurst note Vygotsky's
dialectical method resonates with Marx's as does dialectical critical
realism. By making the commitment to rejecting scientism's fixed entities,
and by rejecting positivism's notion of direct and unmediated knowledge of
reality dialectical critical realism could be developed in harmony with
postmodern and social constructionist accounts by means of a clearly
articulated ontological stance. The focus for subsequent research could
remain in discursive debate but would be ontologically grounded, allowing
researchers to explore not only the discourse but factors that influence
discursive formation."
Also Jörgen Hansson's Phd proposal combines AT and critical realism
http://www.fek.su.se/forskar/pdf/jh040607.pdf
[Thinks: "Is there any relationship between Ethel Tobach's Integrative
Levels and items 1, 2, 3 in the list at the bottom of this message?"]. I
have just cantered through Mind and Society and there were one or two
implicit references to ontology there but I may be hunting in the wrong
haystack or looking for something I wouldnt even recognise if I saw...
Thanks for listening,
Mike Johnson, Cardiff Uni, Wales, UK
PS - Sorry to Phil - hope this doesnt distract too much from the LCA
discussion...
PPS - I collected the fundamental assertions of critical realism from
Archer, M., Sharp, R., Stones, R., & Woodiwiss, T. (1998). Critical realism
and research methodology. Retrieved 18th May, 2005, from
http://www.journalofcriticalrealism.org/archive
1. That the world is a stratified open system.
a. the empirical (experiences)
b. the actual (events)
c. the real (structures and causal powers)
2. 'Independently existing reality of social objects or relations' (p14),
but it is comprehensible and not forever lost to us (p16).
3. Social structures and human agency exhibit causal powers - sociologists
explore their interaction.
4. The World's openness, and the plurality and contingency of causes and
effects in different circumstances.
5. Research is obligatory because 'reality exists independently of our
thought about it.' Requiring dialogue between theoretical and empirical work
but because there is 'an irreducible difference between our thought and that
which it seeks to comprehend' (p15), realists' 'work cannot be taken as the
truth', thus realism is always affected by a scepticism.
6. Research methods are interdisciplinary. They attempt 'reference' with as
much rigor as possible. Acknowledging that all they do is fallible, they
must ensure it is also corrigible.
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