Critical Realism: an investigation into the nature of things

Abstract

Starting from the conception that great part of reality exists and operates independently of our awareness or knowledge of it, and even that it does not fully respond to the empirical research or hermeneutic examination, this article contemplates the philosophical conceptions that encompass critical realism and sheds light on the issues involved in the relationship between theory and reality. Through the contributions of the precursor to the contemporary British philosophical movement of critical realism, Roy Bhaskar, it is intended to highlight the importance of ontology in understanding social reality, demonstrating that Realists approach causality in a critical form, using partial regularities, facts and events that we find in the social world as a stepping stone or portal to understand the processes or the complex, layered and contingent structures that cause these regularities.