Defending Objectivity: Essays in Honour of Andrew Collier

285 Pages·2004·1.02 MB·English

by  Margaret Archer (ed.)

Defending Objectivity
Andrew Collier is the boldest defender of objectivity – in science, knowledge,
thought, action, politics, morality and religion. In this tribute to Andrew, his
colleagues acknowledge the influence he has had upon them. They show that they
have been challenged by his thinking and, in turn, offer challenging responses to him.
This wide-ranging book covers key areas with which defenders of objectivity
often have to engage. Sections are devoted to the following:
• The ‘Objectivity of value’ – are things of value in the world, independently
of the labels we subjectively attach to them?
• ‘Objectivity and everyday knowledge’ – do our workday practices possess an
objectivity which our theories do not, or vice versa?
• ‘Objectivity and materialism’ – does that which is materially based have a
special claim to being objective?
• ‘Objectivity in political economy’ – is the moral dimension systematically
distorted in economic and social theory and can such a claim be substan-
tiated?
• ‘Objectivity and reflexivity’ – can we reason and reason reflexively without
undermining the very objectivity we seek to defend?
• ‘Objectivity, postmodernism and feminism’ – can these common attacks
upon objectivity remain coherent or are they necessarily self-undermining?
• ‘Objectivity and nature’ – is appreciation of nature or advocacy of deep
ecology dependent upon the objective value of the natural world?
The diverse contributions range from social and political thought to philosophy,
reflecting the central themes of Collier’s work.
Margaret S. Archer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick.
She is a Trustee of the Centre for Critical Realism.
William Outhwaite is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex. He
is an associate editor of the European Journal of Social Theory.
Critical realism: interventions
Edited by Margaret Archer, Roy Bhaskar, Andrew
Collier, Nick Hostettler, Tony Lawson and Alan Norrie.
Critical realism is one of the most influential new developments in the philosophy
of science and in the social sciences, providing a powerful alternative to positivism
and postmodernism. This series will explore the critical realist position in philos-
ophy and across the social sciences.
Critical realism Rational Choice Theory
Essential readings Resisting colonisation
Edited by Margaret Archer, Roy Bhaskar, Edited by Margaret Archer and
Andrew Collier, Tony Lawson and Alan Norrie Jonathan Q. Tritter
The Possibility of Naturalism Explaining Society
(3rd edition) Critical realism in the social sciences
A philosophical critique of the Berth Danermark, Mats Ekström, Jan Ch.
contemporary human sciences Karlsson and Liselotte Jakobsen
Roy Bhaskar
Critical Realism and Marxism
Being and Worth Edited by Andrew Brown, Steve Fleetwood
Andrew Collier and John Michael Roberts
Quantum Theory and the Flight Critical Realism in Economics
from Realism Edited by Steve Fleetwood
Philosophical responses to quantum
mechanics Realist Perspectives on
Christopher Norris Management and Organisations
Edited by Stephen Ackroyd and
From East to West Steve Fleetwood
Odyssey of a soul
Roy Bhaskar After International Relations
Critical realism and the
Realism and Racism (re)construction of world politics
Concepts of race in sociological Heikki Patomaki
research
Bob Carter
Capitalism and Citizenship Realism and Sociology
The impossible partnership Anti-foundationalism, ontology and
Kathryn Dean social research
Justin Cruickshank
Philosophy of Language and the
Challenge to Scientific Realism Critical Realism
Christopher Norris The difference it makes
Edited by Justin Cruickshank
Transcendence
Critical realism and God Critical Realism and
Margaret S. Archer, Andrew Collier and Composition Theory
Douglas V. Porpora Donald Judd
Also published by Routledge On Christian Belief
A defence of a cognitive conception of
Routledge studies
religious belief in a Christian context
in critical realism
Andrew Collier
Edited by Margaret Archer, Roy Bhaskar,
Andrew Collier, Nick Hostettler, Tony In Defence of Objectivity and
Lawson and Alan Norrie. Other Essays
Andrew Collier
Marxism and Realism
A materialistic application of realism Realism, Discourse and
in the social science Deconstruction
Sean Creaven Edited by Jonathan Joseph and
John Michael Roberts
Beyond Relativism
Raymond Boudon, cognitive Critical Realism, Post-
rationality and critical realism positivism and the Possibility of
Cynthia Lins Hamlin Knowledge
Ruth Groff
Education Policy and Realist
Social Theory Defending Objectivity
Primary teachers, child-centred Essays in honour of Andrew Collier
philosophy and the new Edited by Margaret S. Archer
managerialism and William Outhwaite
Robert Wilmott
Hegemony
A realist analysis
Jonathan Joseph

Defending Objectivity
Essays in honour of Andrew Collier
Edited by Margaret S. Archer
and William Outhwaite
First published in 2004
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2004 Margaret S. Archer and William Outhwaite selection and editorial
matter; individual chapters the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested.
ISBN 0-203-43397-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-67979-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–338239(Print Edition)
Contents
Notes on contributors xi
Foreword xv
PART I
Encounters with Andrew Collier 1
1 A considerable realist: a personal and
intellectual tribute to Andrew Collier 3
ROY BHASKAR
2 Losing the plot 14
RUTH MERTTENS
PART II
Critiques of counter-objectivity 31
3 Objectivity, postmodernism and biographical
understanding: Andrew Collier on R.D. Laing 33
RAY MONK
4 Objectivity and phallogocentrism 48
DOUGLAS V. PORPORA
PART III
The objectivity of value 61
5 The objectivity of value 63
ALISON ASSITER
viii Contents
6 Commerce and the language of value 75
JOHN O’NEILL
7 Restoring the moral dimension in social scientific
accounts: a qualified ethical naturalist approach 93
ANDREW SAYER
PART IV
Objectivity and everyday knowledge 115
8 Objectivity and the growth of knowledge 117
MARGARET S. ARCHER
9 Practical knowledge and realism: linking Andrew Collier
on lay knowledge to Karl Popper on the philosophy of
science 129
JUSTIN CRUICKSHANK
10 Being and knowledge 143
JONATHAN JOSEPH
PART V
Objectivity and materialism 159
11 Towards objectivity: from Kant to Marx 161
JOLYON AGAR
12 The contradictions of capital 183
CHRISTOPHER J. ARTHUR
13 Understanding objectivity in a material world 199
PHIL WALDEN
Contents ix
PART VI
Objectivity and reflexivity 211
14 Reason and its own self-undoing? 213
ALAN MONTEFIORE
15 Intentional and reflexive objectivity: some reflections 226
WILLIAM OUTHWAITE
PART VII
Objectivity and nature 237
16 Realism about the value of nature? Andrew Collier’s
environmental philosophy 239
TED BENTON
17 Objectivity, experience and the aesthetic of nature 251
KATE SOPER
Index 261