ABSTRACT
Critical realists acknowledge that brilliant and successful science can be done without critical realism, including instances of interdisciplinary work. This chapter argues that critical realism provides science with greater theory/practice consistency compared to alternative methodologies, and that such consistency is greatly enabling of interdisciplinary research. It looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the alternative methodologies. The chapter considers their rational place within a more comprehensive account that critical realism tends to describe. It discusses critical realism's advantages over: Empiricism is the oldest methodology in the field. Empiricism is the oldest methodology in the field. In terms of its simplest definition, empiricism makes use of the Humean formula for universality, which is that a scientific law is a constant conjunction of more or less atomistic events. Critical realism therefore embraces the alternative methodologies and agrees that language and text are very important, as are the writings of Hume and Foucault.
