Lexicon of Arguments

 

Fraassen I 79
Theory/Acceptance/Explanation/Boyd: Question: should one examine under which circumstances the causal assumptions of a theory could be wrong,...
>Causality, >Causal explanation, >Explanation, >Causal relation,
>Circumstances, >Prevention.
I 80
...either because others are at work, or because the supposed mechanisms interfere with those who demand the (new) theory in a way that does not anticipate the theory?
Boyd: Thesis: but the only explanation for this principle (P) lies in a realistic understanding of the accompanying theories (accompanying information). (Boyd pro Realism).
>Realism.
Boyd/Fraassen: he, as a realist, must not only explain what happens, but also that competing statements are not suitable. Can he do this? The alternative mechanisms proposed by him are not directly observable.
>Observability, >Unobservables.
Empirical adequacy/Fraassen: empirical adequacy requires, for example, that the development of bacterial population can be fitted into one of the models of theory. Some fit into the changed but not the original theory.
>Empirical adequacy, >Adequacy,
Test/Experiment: so there is a test in favor of the old and against the new theory. But then it is easy to foresee that this test speaks for (or against) the empirical adequacy of the original theory L in terms of how it differs from the alternative.
Causal mechanisms/causal mechanism/Fraassen: the speech of it can be understood as a speech about the internal structure of the models.
>Models, >Structures.