Abstract
One of the core charges against explanationist scientific realism is that is too epistemically optimistic. Taking the charge seriously, alternative forms of scientific realism -- semi-realism and theoretical irrealism -- are designed to be more modest in their epistemic claims. I consider two cases in cosmology and astrophysics that raises novel issues for both views: the cosmic event horizon inverts important tenets in semi-realism ; theoretical irrealism appears incompatible with standard evidential reasoning in the context of the dark matter problem.
