The Reality Principle: Realism as an Ethical Obligation

Although a ‘realist’ stance is sometimes contrasted with a ‘principled’ one, this article argues that realism is, of itself, an important ethical principle. Acknowledging the problems that exist in defining ‘reality’, and the fact that the nature of reality is contested, the article nevertheless insists on an ‘out there’ reality. It asserts that the existence of this external reality is, in practice, generally accepted, and indeed must be accepted if we are to make the important distinction between truth and falsehood. The article proposes that discourse which is not grounded in the concrete reality of the specific situations in which social work is practised is potentially harmful because it results in a decoupling of language from what it is supposed to represent and creates a potential for language to be used to deceive. The article then discusses ‘Realism about Outcomes’ and ‘Realism about Context’ as two out of a number of different areas in which realism is important in practice and policy making. It concludes that genuinely ethical social work practice and policy making require that we attempt to engage with the world as it actually is.