ABSTRACT
Many academics feel that we must avoid Bhaskar’s metaReality because it is associated with faith not only in social science, psychoanalysis and history but also in the world’s spiritual traditions and in transcendental thinking. Nevertheless, Bhaskar’s position, though clearly inclusive of theism, also leaves space for atheists by advocating an immanent spirituality. Furthermore, transcendental thinking is unavoidable and vital to human survival. Research into how the brain functions indicates that humans are hard-wired for transcendental thinking due to its evolutionary advantages. It allows the detection and representation of animacy and agency, social exchange, moral intuitions, precaution against natural hazards and understanding of misfortune. For critical realists, transcendental laws (at the level of the real) are provided by a metaphysics that is ‘a conceptual science’. It simply clarifies ontological presumptions within the sciences and connects the real with the empirical via the process of emergence. It nevertheless does not support a metaphysics based on a strong dichotomy between mind and body, resulting in claims to a privileged access to Being (and thus knowledge). MetaReality’s version of spirituality is similar to the version invoked by the early environmentalists, such as Aldo Leopold and MaryAusten, and many indigenous knowledge practitioners and ecofeminists. It is associated with the way that the brain understands complex causal mechanisms at the level of the real, not just the empirical.
