The article discusses how managers detect paradoxes. By detection of paradoxes we refer to the capacity to apprehend, articulate and act upon interrelated contradictions that persist over time. The process of detection articulates two central theoretical perspectives on paradox: as constitutive and as socially-constructed. We approach this articulation through the lenses of critical realism and moderate constructivism, here presented/ used as reciprocal and complementary in their explanatory power. Regardless of their potential impact, paradoxes that are not detected will be ignored and will incubate their consequences under a veil of organizational ignorance.