The book presents a defense of scientific realism, asserting that modern science is progressing positively. It contends that historical developments in science do not detract from this perspective, proposing that scientific realism offers the most compelling philosophical framework for understanding science's trajectory and achievements.
Stathis Psillos divides his account into three sections: causation, laws of nature, and explanation. He begins the causation section with Hume's classic "reductive" account and then focuses on the subsequent division between Humean and non-Humean accounts, examining topics such as regularities and singular causation, causation and counterfactuals, and causation and mechanism.
The current philosophical consensus is that science searches for mechanisms. This book re-evaluates central features of this consensus arguing that 'mechanism' as used in scientific practice is a methodological concept, which implies no deep metaphysical commitments.