ABSTRACT
‘ Philosophical underlabouring ’ is most characteristically what critical realist philosophy does. The metaphor of ‘ underlabouring ’ comes from John Locke, who said:
The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity: but every one must not hope to be a Boyle or a Sydenham; and in an age that produces such masters as the great Huygenius and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with some others of that strain, it is ambition enough to be employed as an under labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge. 1
