The field of mathematics education has been fashioned by a diversity of theoretical and philosophical perspectives. The purpose of this study is to add to this field an analysis of the philosophical position of critical realism. To achieve this objective, the study addresses the following questions: what does critical realism have to offer mathematics education? How may critical realism underlabour for this discipline? In addressing these questions, the study provides an overview of the basic theories and the possible weak points (...) of and arguments against critical realism and realism in general. It then draws upon the notion of a dialectical phenomenology to provide a sequence of Achilles' heel critiques of some of the perspectives that constitute broadly the theoretical landscape of mathematics education research. This critique proceeds with an analysis of didactically oriented empiricism, hermeneutics, pragmatism, postmodernism, traditionally recognized forms of constructivism, traditionally recognized theories of activity, and ethnomathematics. The last section summarizes the implications of philosophical underlabouring for a more beneficial science of mathematics education. (shrink)