His style of Surrealism was based on his use of bizarre combinations of everyday objects. Absurd combinations of objects painted realistically created puzzlement to the viewer. His works have an underlying humor and wit. He juxtaposed familiar objects in unusual dramatic settings. Magritte works greatly impacted surrealistic photographers.
Most artists belong to both groups.
The intention seems to be to produce a heightened perceptual awareness of reality as a whole, and thus a heightened emotional awareness, by the juxtaposition of the superreal and the impossible. The practitioners tend to deep but sometimes subtle social criticism. Maybe yes, maybe no. In the introduction to this book, Eddie Wolfram points out that Magritte never felt himself bound by Surrealist dogma, and never enslaved himself totally to Freud in his explorations of human drives. Maybe those are two of the reasons that Magritte's work is more beautiful, and sometimes more cutting, than that of most of the surrealists.