Abstract:For advocates of critical realism emergence is a central theme. Critical realists typically ground their defence of the relative disciplinary autonomy of various sciences by arguing that emergent phenomena exist in a robust non-ontologically, non-causally reductionist sense. Despite the importance they attach to it critical realists have only recently begun to elaborate on emergence at length and systematically compare their own account with those developed by others. This paper clarifies what is distinctive a… Show more
“…On the contrary, they both feed fires. For advocates of critical realism, emergence is the rationale behind the disciplinary autonomy of the different natural sciences (Pratten, 2013). But are there similar processes for the social realm?…”
This paper argues that morality is what links structure to agency and that this perspective supports Giddens' point of view that the agency-structure linkage entails not dualism but duality. These claims will be supported by bringing together four mediating concepts to address both how structures come to being and what the substance of structure is. First, John Searle's concept of deontic power and Rom Harré's concept of moral order will be discussed. This will allow to develop a typology of moral orders that distinguishes between cultural, legal, institutional, conversational, and personal moral orders. Second, the notion of field will be presented as a third mediating concept and it will be argued that the different types of moral orders form a latent background that operates as a normative field in which people act. The totality of those nested orders can be pictured as the structure of a society. The final part of the paper will introduce the concept of position, as used in Positioning Theory, as a fourth mediating concept to advance the analysis of moral orders as structures and relate it to the differences in power amongst actors. Here, it will be argued that declarative speech acts are the activators of moral orders, that moral orders enable for certain positions of agency, and that conversational story lines allow to reproduce or change structures.
“…On the contrary, they both feed fires. For advocates of critical realism, emergence is the rationale behind the disciplinary autonomy of the different natural sciences (Pratten, 2013). But are there similar processes for the social realm?…”
This paper argues that morality is what links structure to agency and that this perspective supports Giddens' point of view that the agency-structure linkage entails not dualism but duality. These claims will be supported by bringing together four mediating concepts to address both how structures come to being and what the substance of structure is. First, John Searle's concept of deontic power and Rom Harré's concept of moral order will be discussed. This will allow to develop a typology of moral orders that distinguishes between cultural, legal, institutional, conversational, and personal moral orders. Second, the notion of field will be presented as a third mediating concept and it will be argued that the different types of moral orders form a latent background that operates as a normative field in which people act. The totality of those nested orders can be pictured as the structure of a society. The final part of the paper will introduce the concept of position, as used in Positioning Theory, as a fourth mediating concept to advance the analysis of moral orders as structures and relate it to the differences in power amongst actors. Here, it will be argued that declarative speech acts are the activators of moral orders, that moral orders enable for certain positions of agency, and that conversational story lines allow to reproduce or change structures.
“…Pratten (2013, p. 265), however, has noted that Lawson “at times [...] defend[s] an account of downward causation that respects the distinction drawn between emergent totality and organising structure.” 18 For there is a causal interaction between the elements that become organised as components and the organisational relational structure. Thus, when human individuals become organised say as components of a crowd, then, according to Lawson: The individuals in their interactions draw not on the crowd behaviour as a totality, but on the relational structures that organises individuals as components of the crowd.…”
Section: Downward Causationmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As Pratten notes, “Lawson's own preference is to avoid the current common confusions in the literature by dropping altogether reference to downward causation” (Pratten, 2013, p. 265). Indeed, it is easier to explain the causal relationship that exists between the items used to form components and the organisation without using the term downward causation.…”
Section: Downward Causationmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Pratten (2013, p. 265) has also argued that interactivist conceptions of downward causation are perhaps compatible with Lawson's views.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It is also the case that in almost every instance in which Lawson has discussed organisation it has come under the heading of emergence. See, for example Lawson (2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c); Lewis (2015); Martins (2011); Porpora (2017); Pratten (2013); Searle (2016); Wight (2016).…”
John Searle has mistakenly claimed that emergence is the central concept in the account of social ontology defended by Tony Lawson, the central figure in the project now regularly referred to as Cambridge Social Ontology. This is not the case. Rather, if any concept can be considered central for Lawson, it is organisation. In this paper, I explain how Searle could misunderstand Lawson and, in doing so, I bring out the importance of organisation for understanding how phenomena, both social and non‐social, are constituted.
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