Resisting the Theistic Turn

Mervyn Hartwig is correct in his initial description of certain of the substantive aims and argument of my Against the Spiritual Turn (AST ), although much is left out. ¹ His review raises one interesting and I would say valid point of critique. I do tend to fuse Bhaskar’s transcendental dialectical critical realism (TDCR) of From East to West (FEW ) and the philosophy of metaReality (PMR) into a single unit and this can be problematic. The positive aspects of Hartwig’s description and critique are, however, accomplished in a handful of paragraphs. Unfortunately, the remainder of his essay serves largely to obscure the arguments of my book, and the methods by which I attempt to establish them. This obfuscation is characteristic of Hartwig’s ‘putting the record straight’ style of debate. In substitution for sustained analysis there is a tendency to rely on appeals to authority and a handful of choice quotations. ² Assorted pejorative ‘-isms’ are applied and various rhetorical asides begun but not developed. I would suggest that this is an overly defensive response to views which Hartwig experiences as a radical challenge to his own and that of a Bhaskarian faith orthodoxy. I hope my reply will have more in the way of substantive content.