Critical Scientific Realism

by Niiniluoto, Ilkka

• ISBN13: 9780199251612
• ISBN10: 0199251614
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book 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. Ilkka Niiniluoto surveys different kinds of realism in various areas of philosophy and then sets out his own critical realist philosophy of science.

Table of Contents

The Varieties of Realism	1	(20)
The problems of realism	1	(3)
Science and other belief systems	4	(5)
Critical scientific realism and its rivals	9	(4)
Realism and the method of philosophy	13	(8)
Realism in Ontology	21	(21)
Materialism, dualism, and idealism	21	(2)
Popper's three worlds	23	(2)
Existence, mind-independence, and reality	25	(3)
The world and its furniture	28	(8)
Arguments for ontological realism	36	(6)
Realism in Semantics	42	(37)
Language as representation	42	(5)
Logical, analytic, and factual truth	47	(4)
How semantics is effable: model theory	51	(4)
Truth as correspondence: Tarski's definition	55	(9)
Truthlikeness	64	(15)
Realism in Epistemology	79	(30)
Certainty, scepticism, and fallibilism	79	(6)
Knowledge of the external world	85	(3)
Kant's `Copernican revolution'	88	(3)
Critical epistemological realism	91	(4)
Epistemic probability and verisimilitude	95	(5)
Epistemic theories of truth	100	(9)
Realism in Theory Construction	109	(51)
Descriptivism, instrumentalism, and realism	109	(11)
Meaning variance, reference, and theoretical terms	120	(12)
Laws, truthlikeness, and idealization	132	(12)
Examples of the realism debate	144	(16)
Realism in Methodology	160	(45)
Measuring the success of science	160	(10)
Axiology and methodological rules	170	(4)
Theory-choice, underdetermination, and simplicity	174	(11)
From empirical success to truthlikeness	185	(7)
Explaining the success of science	192	(6)
Rationality and progress in science	198	(7)
Internal Realism	205	(22)
Ways of worldmaking	205	(6)
Putnam on internal realism	211	(7)
World-versions and identified objects	218	(9)
Relativism	227	(25)
Varieties of relativism	227	(2)
Moral relativism	229	(7)
Cognitive relativism	236	(6)
Feminist philosophy of science	242	(10)
Social Constructivism	252	(27)
The Edinburgh programme: strong or wrong?	253	(9)
Finitism	262	(6)
Life in laboratory	268	(11)
Realism, Science, and Society	279	(23)
Social reasons for realism and anti-realism	280	(8)
Science as a cultural value	288	(5)
Science in a free society	293	(9)
References	302	(29)
Index of Names	331	(8)
Index of Subjects	339