ABSTRACT

Critical realism comes in three waves: critical realism, the dialectics of freedom and the philosophy of meta-Reality (Vandenberghe 2009). In the first and biggest wave (1975–1993), Roy Bhaskar demolished the positivist interpretation of the science. He developed in rapid sequence the system of transcendental realism for the natural sciences (Bhaskar 1978—first moment) and the system of critical naturalism for the social sciences (Bhaskar 1979—second moment). Finally, he also outlined an explanatory critique of positivism as an ideology (Bhaskar 1986—third moment).