Structural realism: The problematic interactions of a new version of epistemological realism with the history of science

Le article analyses the basic features of structural realism, considered by many realists and antirealists alike as the most defensible form of scientific realism. One important source of structural realism was a realist interpretation of Poincaré (J. Worrall), usually enrolled in the opposing camp of conventionalism. Critics of structural realism (especially S. Psillos) have argued that structural realism is either an incoherent form or realism or a surreptitious form of instrumentalism. The article tries to present both positions and takes some views based on a close analysis on the specific historical theories to which the realism-antirealism debate referred (Fresnel's and Maxwell's theories of light)