Page "Anti-realism" Paragraph 13

In philosophy of science, anti-realism applies chiefly to claims about the non-reality of " unobservable " entities such as electrons or hemoglobin, which are not detectable with human senses.

For a brief discussion comparing such anti-realism to its opposite, realism, see ( Okasha 2002, ch.

4 ).

Ian Hacking ( 1999, p. 84 ) also uses the same definition.

One prominent position in the philosophy of science is instrumentalism, which is a non-realist position.

Non-realism takes a purely agnostic view towards the existence of unobservable entities: unobservable entity X serves simply as an instrument to aid in the success of theory Y.

We need not determine the existence or non-existence of X.

Some scientific anti-realists argue further, however, and deny that unobservables exist even as non-truth conditioned instruments.