Generally, those who are scientific realists assert that one can make reliable claims about unobservables (viz., that they have the same ontological status) as observables.

The scientific realists accused the postmodernists of having effectively rejected scientific objectivity, the scientific method, and scientific knowledge.

Though much of the theory associated with 'postmodernism' (see poststructuralism) did not make any interventions into the natural sciences, the scientific realists took aim at its general influence.

It is important to note that one might be a scientific realist regarding some sciences while not being a realist regarding others.

The following claims are typical of those held by scientific realists.

For example, a scientific realist would argue that science must derive some ontological support for atoms from the outstanding phenomenological success of all the theories using them.

"I take a very strong realist view that the world is not dependent on our minds at all," a view held by the "scientific realists."

According to critics, scientific realists cannot explain where the images and their perceiver exist in the brain.

Pickman was in every sense - in conception and in execution - a thorough, painstaking, and almost scientific realist.

Armstrong declares himself to be a scientific realist.