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CHAKRAVARTTY, Anjan. A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism: Knowing the Unobservable. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xvi + 251 pp. Cloth, $85.00-Anjan Chakravartty describes and to some extent argues for a version of scientific realism according to which our best scientific theories approximately correspond to the causal properties and kinds that are in the world. He describes this position as "semirealism" since it is more sophisticated than earlier realisms. His book differs from much of the literature in the philosophy of science by focusing more on the metaphysical rather than epistemological implications of realism.
The book has three parts. The first part begins with the role of unobservables in science. Some unobservables are detectable through instruments at least in principle, such as distant bodies and neutrinos, whereas others cannot be detected, such as universale and causal necessity. Although Chakravartty is concerned with the way in which scientific theories are about both observables and unobservables, the thrust of his metaphysical concern is with undetectable unobservables.
He provides a good account of debates over the reality of such unobservables in the past thirty years. He primarily argues against Bas van Frassen's "constructive empiricism," according to which empiricism is a kind of voluntary stance which rejects speculation about unobservables. Chakravartty argues that van...