Dreyfus extends his argument against antirealism or “deflationary realism.” The deflationary realist holds that objects appear to be independent of us only relative to a particular set of practices, but in fact their existence is dependent on the practices that disclose them. Dreyfus argues instead for the coherence of a robust realism, according to which science can in principle give us access to the functional components of the universe as they are in themselves. To support the coherence of such a claim, Dreyfus draws a distinction between access practices and constitutive practice. Human artifacts and equipment are constituted by the practices for using them. But scientific practices, by decontextualizing objects from the way they are encountered in everyday life, are “contingent practices for identifying objects,” and thus give us access to the objects in a way that allows us to recontextualize and reinterpret them in theoretical terms.
