Scientific Realism

List of contents

1. Believing existence abductions; 2. Believing the best explanation: the realist's move to comparative inference; 3. Supraempirical virtues and their prospects for justifiably excluding competitors; 4. Truth and the argument from the bad lot; 5. The realist justification for epistemic privilege: the No-Miracles argument; 6. Conclusion and epilogue: Socratic scientific realism; References.

Summary

The scientific realism debate directly addresses the relation between human thought and the reality in which it finds itself. A core question: can we justifiably believe that science accurately describes the reality that lies beneath the limits of human experience? Exploring this question, the Element begins at the most foundational level of scientific realism, the endeavor to justify belief in the existence of unobservables by way of abduction. Raising anti-realist challenges, some much discussed in the literature but also some generally overlooked, it works its way toward more refined variants of scientific realism. Because it takes scientific realism to be the default position of many – scientific realists themselves often assuming it is the default position of scientists – the emphasis will be on the challenges. Those challenges will also motivate the variants of scientific realism traced. The Element concludes with an articulation of the author's own position, Socratic scientific realism.

Foreword

Can we justifiably believe that our scientific theories accurately describe the reality that underlies the world as we experience it?

Product details

• Authors: Timothy D. Lyons, Timothy D. (Indiana University Lyons, Timothy D. (Indiana University) Lyons, Lyons Timothy D.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2025
• EAN: 9781009507226
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0950722-6
• No. of pages: 84
• Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Science
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology, Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge