Counterfactuals and Scientific Realism PDF Download
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Author: Michael J. Shaffer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137271582
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
The author attempts to show that scientific realism is compatible with the presence of idealization in the sciences. His main contention is that idealized theories can be treated as counterfactuals about how things are in worlds that are similar to but simpler than the actual world.
Author: Michael J. Shaffer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137271582
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
The author attempts to show that scientific realism is compatible with the presence of idealization in the sciences. His main contention is that idealized theories can be treated as counterfactuals about how things are in worlds that are similar to but simpler than the actual world.
Author: Michael J. Shaffer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137271582
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221
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Book Description
The author attempts to show that scientific realism is compatible with the presence of idealization in the sciences. His main contention is that idealized theories can be treated as counterfactuals about how things are in worlds that are similar to but simpler than the actual world.
Author: David Lewis
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118696417
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 183
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Book Description
Counterfactuals is David Lewis' forceful presentation of and sustained argument for a particular view about propositions which express contrary to fact conditionals, including his famous defense of realism about possible worlds.
Author: Michela Massimi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351383396
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 329
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Book Description
This edited collection is the first of its kind to explore the view called perspectivism in philosophy of science. The book brings together an array of essays that reflect on the methodological promises and scientific challenges of perspectivism in a variety of fields such as physics, biology, cognitive neuroscience, and cancer research, just as a few examples. What are the advantages of using a plurality of perspectives in a given scientific field and for interdisciplinary research? Can different perspectives be integrated? What is the relation between perspectivism, pluralism, and pragmatism? These ten new essays by top scholars in the field offer a polyphonic journey towards understanding the view called ‘perspectivism’ and its relevance to science.
Author: Patrick Greenough
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199288885
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Is truth objective or relative? What exists independently of our minds? This book is about these two questions. The essays in its pages variously defend and critique answers to each, grapple over the proper methodology for addressing them, and wonder whether either question is worth pursuing. In so doing, they carry on a long and esteemed tradition - for our two questions are among the oldest of philosophical issues, and have vexed almost every major philosopher, from Plato, to Kant to Wittgenstein. Fifteen eminent contributors bring fresh perspectives, renewed energy and original answers to debates which have been the focus of a tremendous amount of interest in the last three decades both within philosophy and the culture at large.
Author: Jerrold L. Aronson
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 9780812692884
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
Does science give us a progressively more accurate and objective account of the world? This book by three leading philosophers of science presents a new defense of scientific realism against skeptical and positivist attacks. While positivists view scientific theories as devices for predicting observable phenomena, realists maintain that theories describe hidden processes which account for observable phenomena. This problem raises the question: What are scientific theories about? Do they refer to an unobservable yet real realm of physical processes? It seems undeniable that the scientific endeavor has in some sense made progress. But is the increasing practical success of the physical sciences good grounds for believing that their theories and techniques lead us nearer to the truth? According to Aronson, Harre, and Way, past failures to answer these questions have been due in large part to the assumption that knowledge is expressed in propositions and organized by the canons of logic. On the assumption that science must meet the world in a correspondence between statements and states of affairs, realism turns out to be difficult to defend. Realism Rescued offers a new direction, relying on the importance of models in scientific work. Theories are not to be thought of as sets of propositions, though they can be expressed propositionally. Rather they are models, chunks of orderings of natural kinds. For the first time, the indispensability of models is turned into a powerful argument for realism, an argument that confronts the skeptic on his own ground. By drawing on a new technique of knowledge representation developed in Artificial Intelligence, the dynamic type-hierarchy, the authorsgive a convincing account of the central role of models. Such concepts as verisimilitude, natural kind, natural necessity, and natural law can then be presented far more clearly than ever before.
Author: Arnon Levy
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190212306
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
This book looks at the role of the imagination in science, from both philosophical and psychological perspectives. These contributions combine to provide a comprehensive and exciting picture of this under-explored subject.
Author: Bas C. Van Fraassen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198244271
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
In this book van Fraassen develops an alternative to scientific realism by constructing and evaluating three mutually reinforcing theories.
Author: Steven French
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192546562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
Quantum theory is widely regarded as one of the most successful theories in the history of science. It explains a hugely diverse array of phenomena and is a natural candidate for our best representation of the world at the level of 'fundamental' physics. But how can the world be the way quantum theory says it is? It is famously unclear what the world is like according to quantum physics, which presents a serious problem for the scientific realist who is committed to regarding our best theories as more or less true. The present volume canvasses a variety of responses to this problem, from restricting or revising realism in different ways to exploring entirely new directions in the lively debate surrounding realist interpretations of quantum physics. Some urge us to focus on new formulations of the theory itself, while others examine the status of scientific realism in the further context of quantum field theory. Each chapter is written by a renowned specialist in the field and is aimed at graduate students and researchers in both physics and the philosophy of science. Together they offer a range of illuminating new perspectives on this fundamental debate and exemplify the fruitful interaction between physics and philosophy.
Author: Mario Bunge
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 0802090753
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
Dealing with the controversies over the reality of the external world, this work offers a defense of realism, a critique of various forms of contemporary anti-realism, and a sketch of the author's version of realism, namely hylorealism. It examines the main varieties of antirealism and argues that all of these in fact hinder scientific research.
