因果机制与解放旨趣：批判实在论对社会科学二元对立的超越

Causal Mechanisms and Emancipatory Interests: Critical Realism’s Transcendence of Binary Oppositions in Social Sciences

摘要: 自社会科学诞生以来，实证主义与解释主义的分立对峙便贯穿其发展内部的各个领域。一般来说，前者追求客观、普遍的因果法则，却常因其扁平化的实在论与自然主义立场引发争议；后者强调对主观意义的理解，却又面临相对主义和解释力较弱的困境。本文旨在系统阐述罗伊·巴斯卡所开创的批判实在论如何通过对社会科学的核心概念——尤其是因果与价值——进行根本性重塑，从而为社会科学提供一条超越上述二元对立的可能进路。本文认为，批判实在论的核心贡献在于其分层的本体论、生成性的理由阐释因果观以及事实关联的价值论，并最终通过解释性批判这一概念实现对前述理论的整合，从而导向社会科学的实践维度。通过这一系列概念重构与理论建构，批判实在论为社会科学的解释力与批判性提供了坚实的哲学基础，深刻重塑了社会科学研究的本质、规范与使命。

Abstract: Since the inception of social science, the divide between positivism and interpretivism has pervaded its various internal domains. Broadly speaking, the former pursues objective, universal causal laws but is often criticized for its flattened realism and naturalist stance. The latter emphasizes the understanding of subjective meanings yet faces the dilemmas of relativism and weak explanatory power. This paper aims to systematically elaborate how the critical realism pioneered by Roy Bhaskar offers a possible path for transcending this binary opposition in social science through a fundamental reconceptualization of its core concepts—particularly causality and value. It argues that the central contribution of critical realism lies in its stratified ontology, its generative-explanatory conception of causality, and its fact-value nexus, ultimately integrating the aforementioned theories through the concept of explanatory critique, thereby orienting social science towards its practical dimension. Through this series of conceptual reconstructions and theoretical constructions, critical realism provides a solid philosophical foundation for the explanatory power and critical potential of social science, profoundly reshaping its nature, norms, and mission.