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What is Visionary Realism?

Updated: Aug 27



The framework developed in this thesis, visionary realism, can be intellectually and socially beneficial by offering a big-picture understanding of the reality of the world, identifying the root causes of our complex contemporary crises (i.e., the metacrisis), and articulating transformative potentials for a more eco-socially sustainable, ethically just, and existentially meaningful future. This thesis aims to be impactful at a foundational level of social transformation, contributing principles that can potentially underlabour for a more flourishing planetary society. Drawing on sociological studies of the history of philosophy and culture, it is argued that metatheories are the most powerful causal forces and leverage points for transforming worldviews, and in turn, social systems.


This research thereby explores the causal roots of the metacrisis in the modern Western worldview and the metatheories from which it was forged. Visionary realism offers an alternative and potential resolution of the fundamental cultural problem fields of modernity, articulating principles to inform a new worldview. As an integrative metatheory, visionary realism can be applied to any discipline or field, including community and organizational development, politics, economics, climate change, psychology, research, and education. Of these, it may most clearly have a beneficial impact in research and education. Articulating key principles for new forms of inter- and transdisciplinary research, visionary realism can foster coherence and integration in the face of the complexity of 5 contemporary problems. A visionary realist approach to research and education can likewise undermine the post-truth culture and associated institutional decay by offering a realist alternative that can revindicate a strong notion of truth, inclusive of epistemic relativity. Thus, this thesis can be of beneficial impact for effective dialogue and judgmental rationality in the face of widespread disagreement and polarization in the public sphere.


Visionary realism also lays the ground for a new science of interiority, wherein the human and social sciences could reclaim their purchase on objective knowledge, with far-reaching implications. Moreover, visionary realism articulates a philosophy of education that cuts across disciplines, emphasizes the developmental dimension of education and the educational conditions for social emancipation, integrates knowledge and wisdom, and assumes a role of visionary participation that is aimed at collective flourishing. Such an integrative approach can help to influence the future of scholarship and education (including research methodology, pedagogy, and curriculum), especially in philosophy and the social sciences. The beneficial contributions of this thesis could be catalyzed, in addition to the traditional mediums such as academic journals and books, through applied collaborations between academics and non-academics that demonstrate advantageous results in addressing complex, real-world problems. The impact of this research could also be emboldened by the dissemination of key ideas through popular books, as well through media such as podcasts and documentary films. Ultimately, the principles developed in this research have the potential to ripple through culture and social systems, improving our relationship to our fellow humans and to the imperiled ecological systems upon which we depend for our survival.



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