Critical Realism: A Short Introduction

What is critical realism?

Critical realism is a comprehensive philosophical project developed by the English philosopher Roy Bhaskar. It was developed in three phases. In the first phase (in the book A Realist Theory of Science, 1976), Bhaskar developed basic critical realism, a theory of science that distinguishes between epistemology (what we can know about the world) and ontology (the world in itself). This distinction is expressed in what Bhaskar calls the transitive dimension, which comprises our theories and models of the world, and the intransitive dimension, which concerns the mechanisms and causal powers that operate in the world quite independently of human beings.

To underline further how important this distinction is in science, Bhaskar works with a threefold division of our access to reality: the empirical domain, which is what we observe; the actual domain, which comprises all the events that take place in the world whether we see them or not; and the real domain, which consists of the mechanisms and causal powers that give rise to what actually happens and to what we can observe.

These distinctions matter because they allow Bhaskar to show that traditional philosophy of science, whether it builds on positivism/empiricism (what can be observed or measured) or on various postmodern approaches that claim everything is text, rests on a categorial misunderstanding. He calls it the epistemic fallacy, a conflation of the epistemological and the ontological: the assumption that what we can know (epistemology) also defines what is or exists (ontology).

Bhaskar thus argues that the world exists independently of our thoughts about it (ontological realism), but that our knowledge of it will always be shaped by our culture and history (epistemic relativism). The task of science, then, is to reach deeper into reality than merely what we can see or measure, in order to understand the underlying powers that govern the world.

In other words, he advocates what we may call a non-anthropocentric (not human-centred) view of reality, and he argues that traditional theory of science, of the positivist or the postmodernist kind, is too anthropocentrically oriented, meaning that it is human beings who define what is. This he regards as a category mistake. In the first phase, then, Bhaskar breaks open the entire classical understanding of science and its presuppositions.

In phase 2, Bhaskar develops dialectical critical realism. Central here is the book Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom, in which the emphasis shifts to a socially critical and emancipatory philosophy. Bhaskar argues that Western philosophy has tended to focus only on what is present, the positively given, which he regards as a shortcoming in most earlier philosophy. He therefore introduces the concept of absence as a causal force for change in its own right. For example, a lack of food (absence) creates hunger, which in turn drives people to act to change their situation. Or abuse of power and marginalisation, which create an absence of freedom and justice. From this Bhaskar concludes that since social structures, such as economic systems or oppressive norms, are real mechanisms in the domain of the real, they can also be changed. Dialectical critical realism is about uncovering these structures in order to free human beings from unnecessary oppression or abuse of power. This is also the task of the social sciences. Knowledge is not neutral; the aim of science here becomes to contribute to human emancipation (emancipatory axiology).

In phase 3, Bhaskar develops a meta-realism (The Philosophy of Meta-Reality). In his final phase Bhaskar takes a surprising turn. Whereas the earlier phases were about distinctions and oppositions (transitive vs. intransitive, human beings vs. structure, etc.), the philosophy of meta-Reality sought the non-dual, that which at the deepest level unites us. Bhaskar argued here that there is an underlying, shared reality of freedom, creativity and love – a ground state in which all human beings and all that exists take part. To bring about genuine social change and peace, it is not enough to understand the external social and political structures. We must also recognise that we are part of, and connected with, all that exists, because the same forces are at work in everything created, in human beings and in nature alike.

If you want to go into these matters in more detail, see my book Vitenskapsfilosofi og kritisk realisme, et ikke-antroposentrisk alternativ (2021) [Philosophy of Science and Critical Realism: A Non-Anthropocentric Alternative, in Norwegian], in which I introduce traditional philosophy of science and show how critical realism breaks open these models and develops a more adequate and complex understanding of what science is, or turn to Bhaskar's own works. In that book I do not discuss the third phase of Bhaskar's philosophy, meta-Reality, in much depth. I do so, however, in the manuscript Kritisk realisme og bærekraft, frihet, kreativitet og blomstring (2026) [Critical Realism and Sustainability: Freedom, Creativity and Flourishing], which will be published on this site and where you can read more.