Critical Realism: A Philosophy of Science for Responsible Business and Management Research

Abstract

This chapter argues that the human sciences are not just value-impregnated but value impregnating, that theory and practice are necessarily united, and that axiological imperatives that spring from this theory/practice nexus are essentially scientific hypotheses. We begin by describing some of the fundamental concepts of the critical realist position within the philosophy of science, then show how these concepts are translated in the social realm as a critical naturalism. This sets the ontological background for our description of the critical realist explanatory critique, and we argue for its unique contribution as an underlabourer for a theoretical-practical nexus that has an essential (yet scientific) emancipatory impulse that inherently fosters responsible research.