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ABSTRACT
Critical Realism (CR) as presented by Roy Bhaskar and T. F. Torrance is explored with the view to justify Bhaskar’s notion of “alethic truth” by utilising Torrance’s CR. The implications of Bhaskar’s CR for theological science will be highlighted, as compared to positivism, showing that positivist philosophy undermines theology as a science, whilst CR affirms theology as a scientific discipline. Such affirmation legitimates the possibility for a theological CR to substantiate Bhaskar’s alethic truth theory. The article will display that Torrance’s theological CR complements Bhaskar’s CR by evidencing Bhaskar’s alethic truth theory.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Andrew Collier, Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar’s Philosophy (London: Verso, 1994), xi.
2 Collier, Critical Realism, xi.
3 Roy Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, Radical Thinkers 29 (London: Verso, 2008), 13.
4 Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, 13.
5 Collier, Critical Realism, xi.
6 Roy Bhaskar, “Critical Realism and the Ontology of Persons,” Journal of Critical Realism 19:2 (2020), 113–120.
7 Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, 195–196.
8 Ibid., 12.
9 Ibid., 12.
10 Ibid., 53.
11 Ibid., 13.
12 Ibid., 13.
13 Ibid., 13.
14 Ibid., 51.
15 Ibid., 56.
16 Ibid., 56.
17 Thomas F. Torrance, Theological Science (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), 26.
18 Alister E. McGrath, Reality, 2nd ed., vol. 2, A Scientific Theology (London: Continuum, 2006), 224.
19 McGrath, Reality, 225.
20 Ibid., 225.
21 Ibid., 228.
22 Auguste Comte, Course on Positive Philosophy, trans. Harriet Martineau (New York, NY: Calvin Blanchard, 1858), 25–26.
23 Comte, Course on Positive Philosophy, 25–26.
24 Ibid., 29.
25 Ibid., 28.
26 Ibid., 29.
27 Ibid., 28–29.
28 Ibid., 452.
29 David Hume, Enquiries: Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1902), 32.
30 Hume, Enquiries, 32.
31 Ibid., 32–36.
32 Ibid., 111.
33 Ibid., 19, 21–22, 30; Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, Great Books of The Western World 42 (Chicago, IL: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952), 14.
34 Collier, Critical Realism, 21.
35 Ibid., 21.
36 Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, 29.
37 Ibid., 35.
38 Roy Bhaskar, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation (London: Verso, 1986), 230.
39 Hume, Enquiries: Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, 19.
40 Collier, Critical Realism, 101–102.
41 Frank Pearce and Jon Frauley, eds., Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 30–63.
42 Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, 31.
43 Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, Corrected ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 5, 37, 43, 104, 116.
44 Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, 124.
45 Collier, Critical Realism, 188.
46 Bhaskar, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation, 231.
47 Ante Jeroncic, “The Quest for ‘La Sapienza’: Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism and the Science and Religion Dialogue,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 53:2 (2015), 355–368.
48 Bhaskar, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation, 231 (my italics).
49 Ibid., 231–232.
50 Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, 13.
51 Ibid., 50.
52 Ibid., 50.
53 Collier, Critical Realism, 62–63.
54 Bhaskar, A Realist Theory of Science, 80.
55 Collier, Critical Realism, 108–109. Bhaskar’s stratification theory shows that higher level material mechanisms, such as biological mechanisms, emerge from lower level material mechanisms, such as chemical mechanisms. Then, immaterial mechanisms, such as the mind, emerge from higher level material mechanisms, namely neurological mechanisms.
56 Torrance, Theological Science, 4.
57 Ibid., 3.
58 Ibid., 9.
59 Margaret Archer et al., eds., Critical Realism: Essential Readings, Critical Realism: Interventions (Oxford: Routledge, 1998), 568.
60 Roy Bhaskar and Alan Norrie, “Introduction: Dialectic and Dialectical Critical Realism,” in Critical Realism: Essential Readings, ed. Margaret Archer et al., Critical Realism: Interventions (Oxford: Routledge, 1998), 561–574.
61 Bhaskar and Norrie, “Introduction: Dialectic and Dialectical Critical Realism,” 569.
62 Roy Bhaskar, “Dialectical Critical Realism and Ethics,” in Critical Realism: Essential Readings, ed. Margaret Archer et al., Critical Realism: Interventions (Oxford: Routledge, 1998), 641–687.
63 Bhaskar, “Dialectical Critical Realism and Ethics,” 646.
64 Garry Potter, “Critical Realism and God,” in Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations, ed. Frank Pearce and Jon Frauley (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 74–96.
65 Potter, “Critical Realism and God,” 92.
66 Ibid., 94.
67 Ruth Groff, “The Truth of the Matter: Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism and the Concept of Alethic Truth,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30:3 (2000): 407–435.
68 Margaret Archer, Andrew Collier, and Douglas V. Porpora, eds., Transcendence: Critical Realism and God (London: Routledge, 2004), 25.
69 Thomas F. Torrance, Reality and Scientific Theology (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002), 132.
70 Thomas F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology: Consonance between Theology and Science, New Edition (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001), 28.
71 Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 29.
72 Ibid., 25.
73 Ibid., 26.
74 Ibid., 28.
75 Ibid., 29.
76 Torrance, Theological Science, 10.
77 Ibid., 289.
78 Ibid., 92.
79 Ibid., 289.
80 Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 151.
81 Ibid., 152.
82 Ibid., 160.
83 Ibid., 160–161 (my italics).
84 Thomas F. Torrance, Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ, ed. Robert T. Walker, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 187.
85 Torrance, Theological Science, 186.
86 Thomas F. Torrance, Space, Time and Incarnation (London: Oxford University Press, 1978), 16.
87 Torrance, Space, Time and Incarnation, 16.
88 Ibid., 17.
89 Ibid., 17.
90 Ibid., 17.
91 Torrance, Theological Science, 147.
92 For discussion about the way in which the Logos engages enquirers through binding to human speech (lalia) see Torrance, Theological Science, 151.
93 Colossians 1:16–17.
94 Torrance, Reality and Scientific Theology, 68.
95 Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 5.
96 Torrance, Reality and Scientific Theology, 68.
97 Torrance, Space, Time and Incarnation, 14.
98 Mark 10:18.
99 Genesis 1.
100 Douglas R. Kelly, “The Realist Epistemology of Thomas F. Torrance,” in An Introduction to Torrance Theology: Discovering the Incarnate Saviour, ed. Gerrit Scott Dawson (London: T&T Clark, 2007), 75–102.
101 Kelly, “The Realist Epistemology of Thomas F. Torrance,” 84.
102 Torrance, Theological Science, 5.
103 Matthew 21:42–46; Matthew 26:23; John 6:60–66.
104 Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 166.
105 Ibid., 166.
106 Thomas F. Torrance, God and Rationality (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), 167.
107 John 8:36.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Andrew McGeorge-Hill
Rev. Andrew McGeorge-Hill serves as Chaplain at Kristin School. He is married to Emma McGeorge-Hill, and lives in Auckland, New Zealand.