Critics claim that science, including social science, is 'merely a social construction' that fallible humans have created with words and other symbols. This title explains why the edifice of science has robust properties that make it one of the most useful forms of knowledge that humans have ever created, although it is not perfect.

Part I Early Views of Science; Chapter 1 Storybook Science; Chapter 2 Extreme Skepticism; Chapter 3 Absolute Truth; Chapter 4 Tentative Truths; Part II The Pragmatic Model of Science; Chapter 5 The Individual Research Scientist; Chapter 6 Social Processes; Part III Recent Issues in Science; Chapter 7 The Scientific Community; Chapter 8 Science and the Larger Society; Chapter 9 Into the Future;