Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:30:25.595Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Historical Objection to Scientific Realism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Jarrett Leplin
Jarrett Leplin*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Scientific Realism, as I shall understand it, holds that (a) the purportedly referential terms of current theory are genuinely referential, and (b) the theoretical, lawlike statements of current theory are at least approximately or partly true. Realism recommends itself as an explanation of the success of current science at the level of explanations and predictions of experientially accessible phenomena. That is, the case for realism assumes:

  • (1) Current theory in fact achieves such success, and achieves it on balance, i.e., is free of serious disconfirmations.

  • (2) Realism explains such success; i.e., the truth of (a) and (b) would justify us in expecting current theory to be successful.

  • (3) There is no viable nonrealist explanation of the success of current theory.

  • (4) No features of current theory independent of predictive failure discredit (a) or (b).

I shall comment briefly on each of these assumptions.

Type
Part III. Scientific Realism and Observation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 88 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Giere, R. (1979). Understanding Scientific Reasoning. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Laymon, R. (1980). “Independent Testability: The Michel son-Morley and Kennedy-Thorndike Experiments.” Philosophy of Science 47: 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oddie, G. (1981). “Verisimilitude Revisited.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Soience 32: 237–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and Refutations. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
van Fraassen, B.C. (1980). The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar