Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom

"Bhaskar goes back to the beginning of the western philosophical quest and offers a brilliant refashioning of the dialectic. Because his 'dialectical critical realism' is systematic, ontologically sustained and self-consciously ethical and political, he is able to give stunning readings of key chapters in the history of philosophy. This is a unique book full of gems" - Professor Peter Manicas, University of Hawaii "In this stunning book, Roy Bhaskar develops his own programme of critical realism into a radically new and original theory of dialectics and a critique of previous theories from the ancient Greeks to twentieth-century neo-Marxism. The result is comparable in its scope and ambition to Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason. It is hard to think of any other contemporary philosopher with the powers to bring this off... In short, this is a work of the very highest importance which will be one of the major reference points of philosophical and social thinking in the nineties and beyond." - Professor William Outhwaite, University of Sussex "[I] deeply admire its vast range, rigour and originality. It will be a massively important work." - Professor Terry Eagleton, University of Oxford

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.