Post-positivism emerged as a corrective to logical positivism, accepting that all observation is theory-laden and that scientific knowledge is fallible and revisable rather than built on indubitable foundations. Influenced by Kuhn, Popper, and Lakatos, the movement retains a commitment to empirical inquiry while acknowledging the role of paradigms, background assumptions, and social context in shaping scientific practice.

Science is the systematic study of the natural world through observation, experimentation, and the formulation of testable theories, distinguished from other forms of inquiry by its commitment to empirical evidence and methodological rigor.

Scientific anti-realism challenges the claim that our best scientific theories describe mind-independent reality as it truly is, arguing instead that theories are instruments for predicting observations rather than mirrors of unobservable entities. The position, defended in various forms by van Fraassen and instrumentalists, holds that we should remain agnostic about the existence of entities such as electrons or quarks that lie beyond direct observation.

Scientific realism is the view that science aims to produce true descriptions of the world, and that the entities posited by successful scientific theories (such as electrons and genes) genuinely exist.