In dialogue with Kenneth R. Westphal’s position on realism and skepticism I defend an empirical realism which in a positive (though not positivistic) perspective rejects the transcendental components of Kant’s empirical realism. The central ideas of the empirical realism I support are the characterizations of reality and truth as regulative ideals and of knowledge as unifying activity. I justify my conception by a conceptual and pragmatic analysis of the main relevant epistemological notions.
