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This is a lengthy article. I got rather into it because I'm a student of philosophy of science. I have put it into sections and provided a contents page to make it easier for the reader to process. Feel free to flick through the sections and I hope the reader finds it interesting. It eventually comes to the conclusion that the two can't be separated; but it certainly isn't a straightforward issue.

Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Logical Positivism Science is not ideology!
3. Idealism Questioning the Realist perspective!
4. Instrumentalism A radical alternative to scientific realism!

5. Putnam's "No Miracles Argument" Science must be real!
6. Kuhn Normal Science and Scientific Revolutions!
7. What can we draw from Kuhn?
8. Lakatos Further support for the ideology of science!
9. Feyarabend Can scientific realism be saved?
10. Mathematics Surely realist science?
11. Physics Can we reduce everything to it?
12. Are some Scientific disciplines more realist than other?
13. Conclusion

1. Introduction

Faith in Science has grown in strength since the age of the enlightenment in the 16th and 17th century. Science, since this period of scientific revolution, has been seen by most as a rational progression towards objective truth (at least in terms of physical entities.) Most people are realists and they believe that the physical world exists independently of human thought, belief and perception. Science, as seen by a realist, provides a true description of the nature of reality through independent and objective observations and experiments by scientists. Scientific theories consist of statements that should be interpreted as literally true or false and as postulating entities which either do or do not exist. This period of scientific growth since the 16th century has brought about the discovery of many highly useful inventions and treatment for illness. Surely science must have been so successful due to its accurate and real picture of reality. Such success in scientific discovery has pushed many people's views away from superstition, religious dogma and social ideology, particularly in the western world.

2. Logical Positivism Science is not ideology!

Scientific realism became the overriding position of the logical positivists at the turn of the 20th century. Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of our time, was a practitioner of such a position. This group of scientists followed the realist approach and believed that by verifying

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