Introduction to Philosophy of Science Carl GillettEntity RealismThe truth about scientific unobservables has been argued about from two distinct sides, realists and anti-realists. I will argue that entity realism is the best way to show that entities exist. The scientific anti-realist believes that there is a difference between unobservable and observable entities. They believe that because there is no concrete evidence of unobservable entities and events, theories should not be taken to be true. This does not mean that anti-realists do not take all scientific theories to be false, but that they should only be considered empirically adequate. A theory is believed to be empirically adequate when observable entities and events are found to be true. The scientific realist believes that there is no difference between unobservable and observable; therefore no line should be drawn between the two. Many people who are not very familiar with science usually take the nave realist position. This is the position in which they do not attempt to distinguish observable from unobservable. The nave realist also does not attempt to distinguish observational terms from theoretical terms. Observational terms are terms that explain observable entities and events that occur in scientific experimentation. Some examples of observational terms could be human body parts and an automobile moving. Theoretical terms are terms that can not be directly viewed through the naked eye. Some examples of theoretical terms are force and velocity. Realists believe that theoretical terms are proven to be true by observational terms. The nave realist is able to justify their position because of the Argument from Success. People are driven towards realism because of the success of science. They do not believe that science could be successful without having theories that are true. How could science be so successful if scientific theories are only deemed em...
