This paper proposes a causal-dispositional account of rule-following as it occurs in reasoning and intentional agency. It defends this view against Kripke’s (1982) objection to dispositional accounts of rule-following, and it proposes a solution to the problem of deviant causal chains. In the first part, I will outline the causal-dispositional approach. In the second part, I will follow Martin ...

The main issue of this work-in-progress paper is to address the explanation and understanding of change (and stability) in networks informed by a critical realist position. The aim is twofold. The next section presents a framework drawing heavily on a critical realist interpretation of logistics research (Aastrup & Nedergaard, 2000). Section three discusses a limited number of contributions fro...

Despite many attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of case management for frail older people, systematic reviews including experimental designs show inconsistent results. Starting from the view that case management is a complex intervention occurring in multilayered realities, we conducted a realist evaluation of case management in Belgium, where this type of intervention is new. Realist appro...

Increasing policy demand for realist evaluations of research and capacity-building programmes reflects a recognition of the management, governance and impact gains that can result from evaluation. However, the evidence base on how to successfully implement realist evaluations of complex interventions in international development efforts is scarce. We know little about the associated merits, lim...

In three experiments we examined the judgments made by 3- to 4- year-old children about out-of-date physical representations which no longer matched their referents. The referent was a doll wearing a sticker, and the sticker was swapped for a different one after a picture had been drawn of the initial state of affairs (Experiments 1 and 2) or after the name of the doll and its original sticker ...

Recent philosophical debates in human geography tend to misappropriate critical realism as a method per se. Drawing upon an extensive review of the realist philosophy and method in social science, this article argues that critical realism is a philosophy in search of a method. It ®rst delves into recent debates about critical realism within the wider geographical discourse. It then suggests thr...

Critical realism holds promise for IS researchers who wish to treat technology as a material artifact, work within an explanatory framework, and take into account the role of context. It is widely acknowledged, however, that critical realism itself does not provide a methodological basis for conducting empirical studies. We therefore seek to provide methodological guidance in the conduct of cri...

Increasing policy demand for realist evaluations of research and capacity-building programmes reflects a recognition of the management, governance and impact gains that can result from evaluation. However, the evidence base on how to successfully implement realist evaluations of complex interventions in international development efforts is scarce. We know little about the associated merits, lim...

There has been an empiricist tradition in the core of Logical Positivism/ Empiricism, starting with Moritz Schlick and ending in Herbert Feigl (via Hans Reichenbach), according to which the world of empiricism need not be a barren place devoid of all the explanatory entities posited by scientific theories. The aim of this paper is to articulate this tradition and to explore ways in which its ke...

Increasing policy demand for realist evaluations of research and capacity-building programmes reflects a recognition of the management, governance and impact gains that can result from evaluation. However, the evidence base on how to successfully implement realist evaluations of complex interventions in international development efforts is scarce. We know little about the associated merits, lim...