 One initial response the constructive empiricist might offer to this challenge is the following: if the scientists truly believe the theories to be empirically inadequate, they are not actually accepting the theories, after all. A more sophisticated reply the constructive empiricist might give invokes the recognition that, as § 1.7 above notes, acceptance comes in degrees and has a pragmatic element. The constructive empiricist can allow that a scientist (mostly) accepts a theory, insofar as: 