A summary of an introduction by Margaret Archer and colleagues:
Critical realism is a mess, but there are four themes in the literature. The first is ontological realism: there is some sort of reality out there existing independently of people’s minds. The second is epistemic relativism: our knowledge of reality is conditional on particular contexts, e.g., standpoints, theories, communities, conflicts of interest. The third is judgmental rationality: it is possible to decide whether one theory is better than another at explaining some phenomenon. The fourth is ethical naturalism: although “is” does not imply “ought”, the two are not independent; empirical research can help us determine what values we should hold.