Realism, dialectic, justice and law: an interview with Alan Norrie

ABSTRACT

In this wide-ranging interview Alan Norrie discusses how he became involved with Critical Realism, his work on Dialectical Critical Realism, and responses to it amongst the Critical Realist community. He also discusses the role of law in society, law’s relation to philosophy, and his various related research interests over the years. This extends to his most recent work on moral psychology and the underappreciated connection between metaphysical and meta-psychological categories such as love in Critical Realism, and its importance in ethical and legal contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Alan Norrie
• critical realism
• dialectical critical realism
• justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For information on and access to Norrie’s work and related activity visit: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/people/a_w_norrie/

2 Note from Jamie: Collier’s Critical Realism does discuss DCR briefly.

3 Note from Jamie: for something more recent see Bhaskar, Danermark, and Price (2017), for review see Holland (2019a, 2019b).

4 Note from Jamie: for a review of Assiter’s work see Morgan (2011).

5 Note from Jamie: for Hostettler’s work see Hostettler (2012) and for review see Morgan (2013).

6 Note from Jamie: in relation to Norrie (2013b) see Roberts (2013).

7 See also in this series Archer and Morgan (2020); Rescher and Morgan (2020); Porpora and Morgan (2020); Lawson and Morgan (2020).

8 Note from Jamie: see Norrie (1982).

9 Note from Jamie: ‘aporia’ typically refers to the contrastive tensions or contradictions inherent to what may otherwise present as consistent or plausible statements, theories etc. There are various interpretations of Derrida’s work and intent, but it is fairly typical to locate his work as initially a response to Saussure – contesting the preference or dominance or purity of speech over writing (via ‘logocentrism’) and critiquing a set of ‘binaries’ (speech, writing; signified, signifier; present, absent etc.), in order to make the case that neither is prior or dominant and both are internal to a procedure that is constantly seeking to make and make sense of the world (and so ‘deconstruction’ highlights that one cannot escape from this ambiguous process of fixing what cannot be definitively and decisively fixed in place or meaning – there is ‘nothing outside the text’). What this implies for ontology or the nature of the world is where realism parts company with postmodern and post-structural theory – as Christopher Norris notes, Derrida’s work may be more or less problematic for a realist perspective (Derrida seems to have in mind what he sees as inescapable problems and not a repudiation of critical faculties or of a world which has some implications for what we think and know – provocative though his work has been for philosophers such as John Searle). See Norris (1991).

10 Note from Jamie: though not all those interested in emancipatory social science were taken by Bhaskar’s work on dialectics. Alan referred earlier to Andrew Sayer’s comments on Plato Etc. as a ‘Niagara of neologisms … ’ This continues: ‘it leaps from transcendental deductions of critical realist philosophy, to indications of the shape of a eudemonistic society, ignoring substantive social and political economic theory on modernity and the intractable practical dilemmas which it identifies. The resulting impression is of pulling global salvation out of the critical realist hat.’ (Sayer 2000, 170). Arguably Norrie’s work goes some way to counteracting this impression. David Elder-Vass and various others are also skeptical regarding the moral aspects of argument (for a general survey of Elder-Vass’s work see Morgan 2014). However see Collier (2005).

11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1619_Project

12 To provide just one example of egregious conduct and norm violation, Trump – following his election defeat – began to use the presidential right of pardon (traditionally effected at the end of a presidential term, though he had not yet acknowledged defeat) in December 2020 to pardon Mueller inquiry loyalists and those who had broken the law on his behalf or remained silent in regard of his complicity in alleged crimes, such as Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos. He also pardoned his son in-law’s father Charles Kushner, for tax evasion and witness tampering and (referring only to their ‘long history of service to the nation’) the four members of the Blackwater security company responsible for the massacre of 14 civilians and injury to 17 others (men, women and children) in Iraq in 2007 (Betsy DeVos, who was Trump’s Secretary of Education prior to her resignation January 2021 is sister to Erik Prince founder of Blackwater). Accusations immediately began to emerge that Trump was monetizing his power to pardon and that he was using it in Mafia style to reward rather than in its traditional form for acts of compassion or to overturn miscarriages of justice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Norrie

Alan Norrie is Professor of Law, School of Law, University of Warwick. He is the author of a number of books and articles. Additional detail is given in the interview.

Jamie Morgan

Jamie Morgan is Professor of Economic Sociology at Leeds Beckett University. He co-edits the Real-World Economics Review with Edward Fullbrook. He has published widely in the fields of economics, political economy, philosophy, sociology and international politics.