A Metaphysics For Scientific Realism

A Metaphysics For Scientific Realism Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of A Metaphysics For Scientific Realism book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism

Author : Anjan Chakravartty
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2007-10-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781139468398

Get Book

A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism by Anjan Chakravartty Pdf

Scientific realism is the view that our best scientific theories give approximately true descriptions of both observable and unobservable aspects of a mind-independent world. Debates between realists and their critics are at the very heart of the philosophy of science. Anjan Chakravartty traces the contemporary evolution of realism by examining the most promising strategies adopted by its proponents in response to the forceful challenges of antirealist sceptics, resulting in a positive proposal for scientific realism today. He examines the core principles of the realist position, and sheds light on topics including the varieties of metaphysical commitment required, and the nature of the conflict between realism and its empiricist rivals. By illuminating the connections between realist interpretations of scientific knowledge and the metaphysical foundations supporting them, his book offers a compelling vision of how realism can provide an internally consistent and coherent account of scientific knowledge.

Scientific Ontology

Author : Anjan Chakravartty
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2017-06-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780190651473

Get Book

Scientific Ontology by Anjan Chakravartty Pdf

Both science and philosophy are interested in questions of ontology - questions about what exists and what these things are like. Science and philosophy, however, seem like very different ways of investigating the world, so how should one proceed? Some defer to the sciences, conceived as something apart from philosophy, and others to metaphysics, conceived as something apart from science, for certain kinds of answers. This book contends that these sorts of deference are misconceived. A compelling account of ontology must appreciate the ways in which the sciences incorporate metaphysical assumptions and arguments. At the same time, it must pay careful attention to how observation, experience, and the empirical dimensions of science are related to what may be viewed as defensible philosophical theorizing about ontology. The promise of an effectively naturalized metaphysics is to encourage beliefs that are formed in ways that do justice to scientific theorizing, modeling, and experimentation. But even armed with such a view, there is no one, uniquely rational way to draw lines between domains of ontology that are suitable for belief, and ones in which it would be better to suspend belief instead. In crucial respects, ontology is in the eye of the beholder: it is informed by underlying commitments with implications for the limits of inquiry, which inevitably vary across rational inquirers. As result, the proper scope of ontology is subject to a striking form of voluntary choice, yielding a new and transformative conception of scientific ontology.

The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism

Author : Juha Saatsi
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 907 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2017-11-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781351362900

Get Book

The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism by Juha Saatsi Pdf

Scientific realism is a central, long-standing, and hotly debated topic in philosophy of science. Debates about scientific realism concern the very nature and extent of scientific knowledge and progress. Scientific realists defend a positive epistemic attitude towards our best theories and models regarding how they represent the world that is unobservable to our naked senses. Various realist theses are under sceptical fire from scientific antirealists, e.g. empiricists and instrumentalists. The different dimensions of the ensuing debate centrally connect to numerous other topics in philosophy of science and beyond. The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism is an outstanding reference source – the first collection of its kind – to the key issues, positions, and arguments in this important topic. Its thirty-four chapters, written by a team of international experts, are divided into five parts: Historical development of the realist stance Classic debate: core issues and positions Perspectives on contemporary debates The realism debate in disciplinary context Broader reflections In these sections, the core issues and debates presented, analysed, and set into broader historical and disciplinary contexts. The central issues covered include motivations and arguments for realism; challenges to realism from underdetermination and history of science; different variants of realism; the connection of realism to relativism and perspectivism; and the relationship between realism, metaphysics, and epistemology. The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of science. It will also be very useful for anyone interested in the nature and extent of scientific knowledge.

Resisting Scientific Realism

Author : K. Brad Wray
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2018-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108415217

Get Book

Resisting Scientific Realism by K. Brad Wray Pdf

Provides a spirited defence of anti-realism in philosophy of science. Shows the historical evidence and logical challenges facing scientific realism.

Scientific Realism and the Rationality of Science

Author : Howard Sankey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2016-04-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317058809

Get Book

Scientific Realism and the Rationality of Science by Howard Sankey Pdf

Scientific realism is the position that the aim of science is to advance on truth and increase knowledge about observable and unobservable aspects of the mind-independent world which we inhabit. This book articulates and defends that position. In presenting a clear formulation and addressing the major arguments for scientific realism Sankey appeals to philosophers beyond the community of, typically Anglo-American, analytic philosophers of science to appreciate and understand the doctrine. The book emphasizes the epistemological aspects of scientific realism and contains an original solution to the problem of induction that rests on an appeal to the principle of uniformity of nature.

Metaphysics and Scientific Realism

Author : Francesco Federico Calemi
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2016-01-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783110455915

Get Book

Metaphysics and Scientific Realism by Francesco Federico Calemi Pdf

David Malet Armstrong (8 July 1926–13 May 2014) has been one of the most influential contemporary metaphysicians working in the analytic tradition and surely the greatest 20th century Australian philosopher. His main merit is to have reestablished metaphysics as a respectable branch of philosophy placing it at the centre of the philosophical debate, and giving it the status of an authoritative and competent interlocutor of both rational and empirical sciences. By means of a rigorously argumentative approach and a sharp prose, Armstrong has built a whole metaphysical system, that is, a comprehensive and unified picture of the fundamental structure of the world. The various chapters of the book address the key issues concerning Armstrong' view about the problem of universals, the nature of states of affairs, the ontological ground of possibility, nomic necessity, and dispositions, the truthmaker theory, and the theory of mind. This volume aims to celebrate Armstrong’s memory bringing new understanding, and hopefully stimulating more work, on his philosophy, with the conviction that it constitutes an invaluable heritage for contemporary research in metaphysics.

Critical Scientific Realism

Author : Ilkka Niiniluoto
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 1999-12-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191519406

Get Book

Critical Scientific Realism by Ilkka Niiniluoto Pdf

Ilkka Niiniluoto comes to the rescue of scientific realism, showing that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. Philosophical realism holds that the aim of a particular discourse is to make true statements about its subject-matter. Niiniluoto surveys the different varieties of realism in ontology, semantics, epistemology, theory construction, and methodology. He then sets out his own original version, and defends it against competing theories in the philosophy of science. Niiniluoto's critical scientific realism is founded upon the notion of truth as correspondence between language and reality, and characterizes scientific progress in terms of increasing truthlikeness. This makes it possible not only to take seriously, but also to make precise, the troublesome idea that scientific theories typically are false but nevertheless close to the truth.

A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism

Author : Anjan Anjan Chakravartty
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2015-03-18
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1508932867

Get Book

A Metaphysics for Scientific Realism by Anjan Anjan Chakravartty Pdf

One might think that in order to discuss the question of whether realism is plausible or reasonable, one should already know what it is. As philosophers know only too well, however, one cannot think about everything at once, and the debate surrounding realism is no exception. One must often assume coherent accounts of various components of a position in order to give careful attention to others, and people on all sides of this debate usually take a great deal for granted so as to focus on epistemic questions.

Making Prehistory

Author : Derek Turner
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 195 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2007-07-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781139465052

Get Book

Making Prehistory by Derek Turner Pdf

Scientists often make surprising claims about things that no one can observe. In physics, chemistry, and molecular biology, scientists can at least experiment on those unobservable entities, but what about researchers in fields such as paleobiology and geology who study prehistory, where no such experimentation is possible? Do scientists discover facts about the distant past or do they, in some sense, make prehistory? In this book Derek Turner argues that this problem has surprising and important consequences for the scientific realism debate. His discussion covers some of the main positions in philosophy of science - realism, social constructivism, empiricism, and the natural ontological attitude - and shows how they relate to issues in paleobiology and geology. His original and thought-provoking book will be of wide interest to philosophers and scientists alike.

The Metaphysics of Scientific Realism

Author : Brian Ellis
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2014-12-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317492207

Get Book

The Metaphysics of Scientific Realism by Brian Ellis Pdf

This book presents a major statement on the dominant philosophy of science by one of the world's leading metaphysicians. Brian Ellis's new book develops the metaphysics of scientific realism to the point where it begins to take on the characteristics of a first philosophy. As most people understand it, scientific realism is not yet such a theory. It is not sufficiently general, and has no plausible applications in fields other than the well-established sciences. Nevertheless, Ellis demonstrates that the original arguments that led to scientific realism may be deployed more widely than they originally were to fill out a more complete picture of what there is. Ellis shows that realistic theories of quantum mechanics, time, causality and human freedom can all be developed satisfactorily, and moral theory can be recast to fit within this comprehensive metaphysical framework.

Every Thing Must Go

Author : James Ladyman,Don Ross,David Spurrett,John Collier
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2007-07-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191534751

Get Book

Every Thing Must Go by James Ladyman,Don Ross,David Spurrett,John Collier Pdf

Every Thing Must Go argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental physics ('ontic structural realism'), which, when combined with their metaphysics of the special sciences ('rainforest realism'), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics itself. Taking science metaphysically seriously, Ladyman and Ross argue, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects. Every Thing Must Go also assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the author's metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds.

Scientific Realism and the Quantum

Author : Steven French,Juha Saatsi
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192546562

Get Book

Scientific Realism and the Quantum by Steven French,Juha Saatsi Pdf

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.

Realism and Anti-Realism in the Philosophy of Science

Author : Robert S. Cohen,R. Hilpinen,Ren-Zong Qiu
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2013-03-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401586382

Get Book

Realism and Anti-Realism in the Philosophy of Science by Robert S. Cohen,R. Hilpinen,Ren-Zong Qiu Pdf

Beijing International Conference, 1992

Metaphysics of Scientific Realism

Author : Brian David Ellis
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2014-05-10
Category : Metaphysics
ISBN : 1283456842

Get Book

Metaphysics of Scientific Realism by Brian David Ellis Pdf

Brian Ellis develops the metaphysics of scientific realism to the point where it begins to take on the characteristics of a first philosophy, that is, as a theory about the nature of reality that can reasonably adjudicate on theories in other fields of enquiry in which assumptions are made about the basic nature of the world. As most people understand it, scientific realism is not yet such a theory. Nevertheless, Ellis shows that the original arguments that led to scientific realism may be deployed more widely than they were originally to fill out a more complete picture of what there is. Realistic theories of quantum mechanics, time, causality and human freedom can all be developed satisfactorily, and moral theory can be recast to fit within this comprehensive metaphysical framework.

Scientific Realism

Author : Jarrett Leplin
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2023-04-28
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780520337442

Get Book

Scientific Realism by Jarrett Leplin Pdf

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.