Do Realists Predict?

Abstract

As Petter Naess observes, some specifically prominent voices within CR have expressly denied our ability to predict much in the social domain while others express great caution about endorsing any such ability. In print, Naess has been the most prominent CR voice defending predictability, but there are others of us critical realists who share Naess's view. The purpose of this paper is to further defend the view that critical realists have no special problem with predicting events. We just do not grant prediction the same status that positivists do. The argument here is parallel to Porpora's that critical realists can and do run regressions but without granting them the same explanatory status as positivism.