  Wright's philosophical position is a type of naturalism, though not a naturalism endorsed by most twentieth century philosophers who have used that term. Given his view of philosophy, he resisted skepticism, idealism, and realism, regarding them all as defects of thought. Nevertheless, compared to twentieth century philosophies of science, his own philosophy of science is decidedly realist. He believed scientists discover structures and features of natural things, and previously unknown hidden entities, as well as phenomenal laws that govern the behavior of natural things. In this respect, his positivism is methodological and precautionary, a preparation for scientific realism. In treating the origin of consciousness, he said that idealism and natural realism are the two philosophical positions to issue from taking sense data and emotions as the primarily real. In idealism, the conscious subject is immediately known through his perceptions, i.e., the phenomena, and the existence of an external world can only be an inference from the phenomena known to belong to the self (PD 230). He rejected this but also rejected natural realism, which holds that “both the subject and object are absolutely, immediately, and equally known through their essential attributes in perception.” This view, he says, “is more than an unlearned jury are competent to say” (PD 231).