Scientific Realism in the Wild: An Empirical Study of Seven Sciences and HPS

We report the results of a study that investigated the views of researchers working in seven scientific disciplines and in HPS in regard to four hypothesized dimensions of scientific realism. Among other things, we found (i) that natural scientists tended to express more strongly realist views than social scientists, (ii) that HPS scholars tended to express more anti-realist views than natural scientists, (iii) that van Fraassen’s characterization of scientific realism failed to cluster with more standard characterizations, and (iv) that those who endorsed the Pessimistic Induction were no more or less likely to endorse anti-realism.