Any theories about emergent entities are tacitly based on critical realist assumptions and, in so much as the theory has been assessed through a process of judgemental rationality, can therefore act as a resource for critical realist research. Such theories include:

• those that explain the workings of the mind (where the mind is emergent from neurons in the body);

• those that explain the workings of society (where society is emergent from individual people); and

• those that explain the workings of ecosystems (where ecosystems are emergent from individual organisms).

 

Such theories presuppose that reality has depth and therefore that it includes the structures and mechanisms that they describe. This means that the theories of the following thinkers are, at least in principle, compatible with critical realism:

 

• In terms of social science and political philosophy, the theories of, for example, Karl Marx, Simone de Beauvoir, Hanna Arendt, Paolo Freire, Pierre Bourdieu, Basil Bernstein, Steve Biko, Shiv Visvanathan and Irving Goffman. 

• In terms of psychology, the theories of, for example, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Lev Vygotsky, and Mary Ainsworth

• In terms of ecology, the theories of, for example, Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, and Eugene Odum

 

Critical realism underlabours for such theories, that is, it gives them an ontology and therefore gives them a strong base from which to counter debilitating claims that they have no ontology and are therefore not proper science. Furthermore, whilst critical realism offers an overarching philosophical perspective for science and research, nevertheless researchers must still choose a methodology with which to work. Therefore, methodological approaches to research such as hermeneutical phenomenology,  critical discourse analysis, or quantitative methodologies remain important resources for critical realist researchers. There are many examples of researchers who have  underlaboured for their theories and methodologies with critical realism. Take, for example, the work of the critical realist Norman Fairclough; his methodology is critical discourse analysis and he uses, amongst others, the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein. For an example of his work, click here. 

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