ABSTRACT
Critical realism is applicable to real-life issues and problems, and it results in trustworthy, reliable science. This chapter summarizes the major difference between critical realist accounts of science, and rival accounts, as being that critical realism prioritizes ontology whereas other approaches prioritize epistemology. In terms of the ontology of interdisciplinarity, the reason that people need interdisciplinarity is because, with the exception of experimentally closed-context systems, there are always a multiplicity of causes and mechanisms required to explain an event or concrete phenomenon. However, transdisciplinarity is not the only epistemological consideration of interdisciplinarity. It also depends on crossdisciplinary understanding between the members of the research team. The possibility of such understanding depends on the principles of universal solidarity and axial rationality. Practical recommendations for achieving interdisciplinarity are ubiquitous, such as the recommendation that there should be defined career paths for interdisciplinary researchers and ring-fenced funding for interdisciplinary activities.
