. the domain of actual →生み出された出来事(経験されようがされまいが関係ない)
. the domain of empirical → 出来事のうち、経験されたもの
The basic one is the so-called domain of real. Here we find the mechanisms. They exist irrespectively of whether they produce an event or not. When the mechanisms produce a factual event, it comes under the domain of actual, whether we observe it or not. When such an event is experienced, it becomes an empirical fact and comes under the domain of empirical. That means the critical realist perspective of the world is that the reality scientists study is larger than the domain of empirical. (p.199)
科学は、実践・実社会とどう連関していくか。 解放:"we would like to argue that the social sciences are of great relevance to social life, and that the knowledge they provide can be emancipatory." (p.177; emphasis added)
A precondition: the distinction of agency and structure
This is obviously the most important difference between social structures and agents: social structures cannot set up goals and they cannot act; only humans can ? agents are the only effective causes of society. (p.179)
While social structures cannot be reduced to individuals, the former are a prerequisite for any human action ? social structures enable actions but they also set limits to what actions are possible. (p.179)
創発性 (emergence) の重要性:構造もエージェンシーも、異なる powers and properties を持つ
the social structures are always the context in which action and social interaction take place, at the same time as social interaction constitutes the environment in which the structures are reproduced or transformed. Structure and agency are separate strata, that is, they possess completely different properties and powers, but the one is essential for how the other will be moulded. (p.181)
‘Dualism’ refers to the fact that social structures and human agency are different strata, ‘analytical’ to the fact that these strata and the interaction between them cannot be detected in the flow of social action and human experiences, but only by means of social scientific analysis. (p.181)
説明の有無に限らず「予測あり」は閉鎖システムを前提とした話で、開放システムにおいては非現実的。(なお、社会における様々な人工的組織・制度は、人間の制御可能性をあげるために作り出された疑似閉鎖システム pseudo-closed systems と考えることができる)
社会(社会構造)と人間(エージェンシー)、相対的自律のなかでの相互依存関係
Societies exist and are what they are ? among other things open, changeable systems ? because we are humans and are what we are. And we as humans are what we are because societies exist and are what they are. But a society and a human being are not two sides of the same coin. On the contrary, they are two entirely different phenomena, each with its own relative autonomy. (p.187; emphasis added)
社会科学者が実務家に提供すべきなのは、処方箋ではなく理論である。”What social scientists should provide practitioners with is not prescriptions but social scientific theories.” (p.189)
社会科学ベースの「処方箋」は特定のコンテクストを前提にした知識であり、閉鎖システムならともかく、開放システムでは役に立たない。実務家にとって真に役に立つのは、事象を生み出すメカニズムについての知識であり、それはつまり理論に関する知識である。
An example: elderly people and relocation
高齢者の転居政策に関する意思決定を事例に。
「転居は死亡率に影響を与える vs. 与えない」
But we [=social scientists] cannot say ‘Relocate!’ Nor can we say ‘Avoid relocation!’ Only someone who has insight into the real circumstances and the daily life of the people concerned may estimate how these mechanisms may manifest themselves in specific cases. And to be able to do this, practitioners must make use of social scientific theories which specify the structures and mechanisms that are relevant to the field. (p.192)
Unlike human beings, social structures are not intentional. However, they cannot be regarded as belonging to the natural sphere, since they are social products and dependent upon human action for their existence. And it is social structures that lay down the conditions for what we can do and not do by placing us in various social situations. That is why a socially emancipatory objective should be directed against structures. Emancipation here involves replacing undesired social structures with desired ones. And even in this context there are false beliefs to be considered. (p.193)