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True Lies: Realism, Robustness, and Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Jay Odenbaugh
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Abstract

In this essay, I argue that uneliminated idealizations pose a serious problem for scientific realism. I consider one method for “de-idealizing” models—robustness analysis. However, I argue that unless idealizations are eliminated from an idealized theory and robustness analysis need not do that, scientists are not justified in believing that the theory is true. I consider one example of modeling from the biological sciences that exemplifies the problem.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 78 , Issue 5 , December 2011 , pp. 1177 - 1188
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

I would like to thank Rebecca Copenhaver, Eddie Cushman, Ronald Giere, Wendy Parker, Nicholas D. Smith, and Michael Weisberg for their questions and comments regarding this article.

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