Introduced by John Worrall in 1989 “structural realism” was intended to serve as a mediator between the scientific realism argument and an anti-science consensus usually based on the existence of radical theory change within science.

Structural realism posited that one was not best served accepting standard scientific realism which asserts that the nature of unobserved objects which result in the phenomena we do observe is correctly explained by our best theories. However, antirealists (and any argument against the scientific endeavour) reject the most useful tool for human progress and subsequently should also not be taken seriously.

Rather one should epistemically commit themselves only to the mathematical or structural content of our best theories. Across theory change there is a retention of structure and thus structural realism both (a) avoids the attraction of pessimistic meta-induction and (b) removes the trap of viewing the success of science as miraculous.