Reviews for Experience and the growth of understanding (International Library of the Philosophy of Educa...

The average rating for Experience and the growth of understanding (International Library of the Philosophy of Educa... based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-07-25 00:00:00 Jeffrey Kiper Jr I am still chewing over the thoughts in this book. I have to agree that the positivists don't have it quite right and nor do the relativists. Much of what Bhaskar says in critiquing this school of thought or that I have to admit I agree with him on. At times the text is hard to read, and while I am happy to acknowledge that sometimes people are smarter than me (and Bhaskar very likely is) I think sometimes also he is too busy using long words and latin phrases and such instead of being clear. His use of pronouns is very strange and I will try to give him the benefit of the doubt that his intentions are good in this...but it doesn't come across well. The chapter that is full of diagrams and strange equations was the hardest one to understand and I felt sometimes he had things the wrong way around- giving us a lot of argument about transative and intransative early on and only late in chapter 8 explaining what he actually meant by the terms. Then his critique of Rorty...while I agreed with everything Bhaskar said his depiction of Rorty was as of someone taking drugs and raving weird things, I was surprised that so much earnest argument was needed to unpick ideas like the one about being able to predict the sounds people will make in the future (in detail) but not the content or meaning. That seemed like a 3am stoned "I am so creative and philosophical" idea from Rorty in the first place (assuming my reading of Bhaskar's reading of Rorty is fair on both levels) and I would have thought a hollow laugh and move away to talk to the much more interesting feminist at the other end of the room would have been an adequate answer (that is how I usually handle the drunk self-important "philosophers" anyway). But the good thing about the detail in which Bhakar engaged with Rorty is that in doing so he made his own position all the more clear. I have about 12 pages of typed notes and reflections from reading this book and it may well be something I use for my thesis- so despite not having exactly enjoyed my way through it, I'd have to agree with all the people who see some significant thinking within it. And I am sure it was very "good for me" to struggle through it ;)

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-21 00:00:00 Daniel Diletti This book, first published in 1989, brings together nine essays or articles on diverse topics. To a large extent, they can be read as recapitulating his 1975 account of "A Realist Theory of Science," which is helpful in clarifying the key themes of that work, while demonstrating that his account supplies a powerful analytical tool by which to approach a range of topics, the most important being his discussion of the basis for social science. He clearly believes that his thinking contributes to argument in support of the political Left and against the political Right. There are specific targets and topics for which this is doubtless the case. I personally would incline to the view that this is not terribly significant for the purpose of these essays; many people with political allegiance to "the Right" would still be interested in his analysis. Put another way, why say anything that sustains the idea that people on the Right and on the Left simply occupy separate worlds and avoid read each others' books? Also, why give the impression that Bhaskar's ideas are dogmatic when they are the opposite? More generally, this book is really most likely to benefit academics and students. As a civilian, I found it frustrating to read - some essays more so than others. Despite the topicality and evident value of his approach, which really is exciting by the way, I feel that his own writing in these essays is far too dense and opaque to serve a wide audience and he clearly needs the mediation of a more accessible writer. Exciting ideas and imaginative thinking waiting for a comic book version? That might well work.