ABSTRACT
Scientific realism is a philosophical trend that takes science seriously. This means that the results of scientific inquiry should be preferred to myths, religion, metaphysics, and uncritical common sense. For example, if we are interested in the problem of consciousness, we should bring together philosophers and scientists and see what they have to say about the human mind. But scientific realism makes another move in its reliance on science: Against positivist and instrumentalist views, it takes scientific theories seriously as fallible but progressive attempts to disclose the nature of reality-even beyond the observable things and events. Therefore, scientific realism has played an important role in rehabilitating the study of human consciousness within contemporary psychology and cognitive science.
