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Three Tales of Scientific Success

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Michela Massimi
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Abstract

Success-to-truth inferences have been the realist stronghold for a long time. Scientific success is the parameter by which realists claim to discern approximately true theories from false ones. But scientific success needs to be probed a bit deeper. In this article, I tell three tales of scientific success, by considering in turn success from nowhere, success from here now, and success from within. I argue for a suitable version of success from within that can do justice to the historically situated nature of our scientific knowledge. The outcome is a new way of thinking about success-to-truth inferences along perspectivalist lines.

Type
Perspectivism
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 83 , Issue 5 , December 2016 , pp. 757 - 767
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

This article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement European Consolidator Grant H2020-ERC-2014-CoG 647272 “Perspectival Realism: Science, Knowledge, and Truth from a Human Vantage Point”).

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