ABSTRACT
The ontology of realism exemplifies that which the hyper-and virtual-realities of postmodernism seek to overturn. Having described them, let me now describe it. I do so by contrasting this ontology and its corollary, the retroductive mode of inference, with that which they oppose, empiricism and positivism, and by distinguishing between retroduction as a logic of discovery and retro-and pre-diction as logics of proof. I explain how the process of scientific discovery is stimulated by interest and guided by analogy within ‘imaginary experiments’. Via a discussion of the problem of ‘naturalism’, the chapter examines the nature of social objects. I draw mainly on the work of Roy Bhaskar, the leading contemporary exponent of critical realism.
