Entity Realism

This chapter discusses an approach known as entity realism or experimental realism, which was introduced in the early 1980s by Ian Hacking and Nancy Cartwright and seeks to defend some middle ground between traditional scientific realism and antirealism. I start by introducing Hacking’s version of entity realism, which is based on an argument from manipulability. After responding to some of the criticism that has been directed against this argument, I will turn to Cartwright’s version of entity realism, which is based on a distinction between causal and theoretical explanations. An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach will pave the way for advertising what I take to be the relevant heritage of entity realism in the contemporary debate on scientific realism.