Why does sociology need to do ontology? Why should we be concerned with persons? In this interview, Chris Smith addresses these issues and more, arguing for critical realism as a robust metatheory which enables us to own up to our commitments and hash out in good virtuous arguments what sociology should be doing and how we should be doing it. Smith expounds on his understanding of critical realism which allows us to be reflexive about social science and the philosophical commitments that operate in the background. Critical realism provides the landscape to ask questions of ontology, like what is a person? What is it for persons to flourish? And what are the social conditions under which this is possible?