Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom

This book attacks purely analytical modes of thinking. Bhaskar develops a critical realist philosophy, which isolates the definition of being in terms of knowledge as the characteristic flaw of traditional philosophy. He conceives a “transformational” model of society and sees social science as explanatory, and therefore of assistance to political projects of emancipation. Concerned to bridge the gap between philosophy and politics, Dialectic argues that critical realism provides the basis of a completely new and general methodology for the human sciences. This book also contains an account of the history of Western philosophy, from its pre-Socratic origins to its contemporary post-modernist forms.

Roy Bhaskar is an independent scholar and founder of the critical realist movement in the social sciences. He is the author of several books, including The Possibility of Naturalism, Reclaiming Reality, Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom and Philosophy and the Idea of Freedom.