Explanatory realism is the view that successful explanations correspond to real features of the systems they explain. Scientific concepts are not regarded merely as useful ways of organising observations but as attempts to identify genuine structures, relations, and dependencies that make phenomena intelligible.
Within APS, explanatory realism plays a central role because biological explanation routinely appeals to concepts such as organisation, function, agency, normativity, regulation, semiosis, and persistence. APS argues that the success of these concepts cannot be explained adequately if they are treated as purely heuristic or observer-relative. Their explanatory effectiveness suggests that they track real organisational relations within living systems themselves.
APS therefore extends explanatory realism beyond the description of physical components alone. Biological explanations do not succeed merely because they identify molecules, mechanisms, or physical processes. They also succeed because they reveal how such processes are organised in ways that maintain viability across time. Organisational relations are explanatorily significant because they contribute directly to the persistence of living systems.
This position is closely related to organisational realism. Organisational realism concerns what kinds of things are real in biological systems, whereas explanatory realism concerns why explanations based on those organisational features succeed. APS argues that biological explanation is successful because it tracks real forms of viability-oriented organised persistence rather than merely describing patterns imposed by observers.
Explanatory realism also differs from stronger forms of scientific realism that focus primarily on the truth of theories. APS is concerned less with whether every scientific concept corresponds directly to an independent entity and more with whether successful explanations identify genuine organisational dependencies. Explanatory success therefore provides evidence that biological organisation itself is a real feature of living systems.
From an APS perspective, explanatory realism follows naturally from the reality of organised persistence. If living systems actively maintain the conditions required for their continued existence, then explanations that successfully describe how this maintenance occurs are tracking genuine features of biological reality.
Key Point. APS explanatory realism holds that biological explanations succeed because they identify real organisational relations through which living systems maintain viability-oriented organised persistence across time.