Scientific Realism

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Realism is generally the view that one can make true statements about states of affairs in the world. Scientific realism is a version of realism as it pertains to the knowledge-gathering activity called science. Scientific realism has two components: (1) the metaphysical/ontological assumption that there is a way the world is, independent of humans, and (2) the epistemological assumption that humans can somehow know and understand (and thus describe) that way the world is. Together, these assumptions form a key claim of science that underpins the whole certainty of scientific knowledge: Science tells the truth about the universe. To cast doubt on scientific realism is to cast doubt on the supposed validity of the scientific enterprise. To argue against the first component leads toward the extreme view that the whole universe exists only in a person's consciousness, and most people accept that there is some sort of universe that would exist even if humans were extinct. Most opposition to scientific realism therefore focuses on the second component: knowing and understanding and truth.

From the realist view that science objectively explains and describes the world, it follows that a scientific theory is a (perhaps partial) description of the way the world is and that the statements made by the theory can be adjudged true or false by reference to real-world states of affairs. Because there is only one way the world is, there can be only one true description of it. This highlights the epistemological value of scientific realism: It guarantees a certainty of knowledge.

If you accept scientific realism, and that it describes how social science is done, then when you read a case study you will take it as the presentation of a set of factual descriptions that warrant the conclusions drawn and accept those conclusions as true. However, this is not the only way to understand a case study.