Unobservable Entities

Unobservable entities are things that cannot be directly seen or measured, like electrons or black holes. In the debate between scientific realism and anti-realism, realists argue that these entities exist because scientific theories about them are successful and consistent with observations. Anti-realists, however, contend that just because a theory works, it doesn’t mean these entities exist—they might just be useful tools. Essentially, the discussion revolves around whether we should believe in the reality of things we can't observe directly, based on the success of the theories that describe them.