Transcendental realism is a concept stemming from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

 that implies individuals have a perfect understanding of the limitations of their own minds.

Kantian roots

Transcendental realism arguably has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and refers to a form of transcendentalism

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...

 that permits the subject to be fully cognizant of all limitations of their mind, and adjust their cognition accordingly as one seeks to understand the noumenon

Noumenon

The noumenon is a posited object or event that is known without the use of the senses.The term is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to "phenomenon", which refers to anything that appears to, or is an object of, the senses...

 (or the world as it actually exists—things-in-themselves). In this way, the subject is able to know the world of things-in-themselves, and, presumably, is able to scientifically test such noumena.

It is important to note that Kant was himself not a transcendental realist, but rather a transcendental idealist

Transcendental idealism

Transcendental idealism is a doctrine founded by German philosopher Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century. Kant's doctrine maintains that human experience of things is similar to the way they appear to us — implying a fundamentally subject-based component, rather than being an activity that...

. That is to say, he did not believe one could ever understand the noumenal realm.

Transcendental realism in contemporary research methodology

It might be argued that a latent form of transcendental realism has permeated branches of contemporary perspectives on phenomenological research methodology within the social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

, humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

, education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

. Some writers, in particular the economist Tony Lawson of the critical realist school

Critical realism

In the philosophy of perception, critical realism is the theory that some of our sense-data can and do accurately represent external objects, properties, and events, while other of our sense-data do not accurately represent any external objects, properties, and events...

, have suggested that researchers are capable of "bracketing-out" their own subjectivity

Subjectivity

Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...

within phenomenological research. Such claims, while not explicitly characteristic of transcendental realism, tend to overlook problems that are inherently shared (such as those discussed in the section below).

Problems with transcendental realism

A central problem with transcendental realism is the requirement of the individual to fully understand their own mind—to the degree that one is able to identify with perfect certainty each and every limitation inherent and manifest within. This understanding would further need to be perpetually reevaluated given the developmental nature of mind and, presumably, the developmental nature of its limitations. While this is not theoretically impossible, it is, for all intents and purposes, a serious practical limitation of the transcendental realist position.