Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Realism, philosophy: realism is a collective term for theories which, in principle, believe that it is possible for us to acquire knowledge about objects of the external world that is independent from us as perceptual subjects. A strong realism typically represents the thesis that it would make sense to even create hypotheses about basically unknowable objects. See also metaphysical realism, internal realism, universal realism, constructivism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Gerhard Schurz on Realism - Dictionary of Arguments
I 211 Realism/theory of science/Schurz: two types: (a) metaphysical I 212 b) hypothetical constructive realism: thesis: the question whether a theoretical term refers cannot be decided a priori. It depends on the success of the term in experiential knowledge. Then the realist justification question converges with the instrumentalist meaning question! Miracle argument/PutnamVsQuine/PutnamVsUnderdetermined: (pro realism): It would be a miracle if theories that have long been empirically successful were not also realistically true. Underdeterminism/QuineVsPutnam/QuineVsRealism: Proposition: It is always possible to construct empirically equivalent theories T* to a given theory T with strongly different or even incompatible theoretical superstructures, so that it is impossible for T and T* to be true at the same time. Such empirically equivalent theory transformations, however, are always post hoc. Miracle argument: (Worrall 1997(1), 153ff, Carrier 2003(2), §4): The miracle argument can only have validity if one understands empirical success as the ability to make qualitatively new predictions. CarrierVsQuine/WorrallVsQuine//Schurz: no post hoc constructed theory T* has ever been able to. >Theoretical terms/Schurz. 1. Worral, J. (1997). "Structural Realism: The Best of Both Worlds?". In: Papineau, D. (ed., 1997) 139-165. 2. Carrier, M. (2003). "Experimental Success and the Revelation of Reality: The Miracle Argument for Scientific Realism", In: P. Blanchard et al (eds), Science, Society and Reality. Heidelberg: Springer._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Schu I G. Schurz Einführung in die Wissenschaftstheorie Darmstadt 2006 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19