There are three basic philosophical understandings of Science.
• Scientific Realism argues that scientific theories describe reality accurately and literally. Scientific Realism reflects absolute confidence in the scientific project.
• Critical Realism contends that scientific theories are only human constructs with some basis in reality. The focus of Critical Realism centers on the belief that scientific theories are only human tools, which serve the purpose of enabling us to function with the framework of reality, as well as functioning as interpretive keys to the nature of reality.
• Instrumentalism argues that scientific theories are merely heuristic fictions and function like Bohr's picture of the atom. Essentially, these theories have no basis in reality. These three approaches cover the spectrum of perspectives of nature of scientific theories.
