Description:Psillos defends scientific realism along naturalistic lines against many positivist and post-positivist empiricist challenges, e.g as articulated by Duhem, Carnap, Laudan, Worrall, van Fraassen, and Fine. His command of empiricist philosophy is impressive (at least to me) and renders this book an excellent introduction to the current debate. Constructivism, however, is not treated here. The arguments are detailed and plausible and can be reconstructed by philosophically oriented scientists. The focus is on the physical sciences, and I wonder whether Psillos' conception of natural kinds would be all that successful in biological, historical, or social sciences. Nevertheless, the amount of synthesis of arguments in this book makes it a very valuable resource.