This reader is designed to make accessible in one volume, to lay person and academic, student and teacher alike, key readings to stimulate debate about and within critical realism. The four parts cover: the transcendmental realist philosophy of science elaborated in A Realist Theory of Science, by Roy Bhaskar; Bhaskar's naturalist philosophy of social science; the theory of explanatory critique, which is central to critical realism; and the theme of dialectice, which is central to Bhaskar's most recent writings. The volume includes extracts from Bhaskar's books, as well as selections from other contributors to the critical realist programme.