Sellars was a significant philosopher of science and a staunch defender of scientific realism.  He often couched his discussions in the terms made common by the logical empiricists, but he was in many ways a subversive philosopher of science, undermining the irenic instrumentalism popular in the 1950s  and ‘60s (e.g., the views defended by Ernest Nagel)in favor of a position that might seem oxymoronic: a pragmatic realism.  