From Instrumentalism to Constructive Realism

by Kuipers, Theo A. F.

• ISBN13: 9780792360865
• ISBN10: 0792360869
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

Surprisingly, modified versions of the confirmation theory (Carnap and Hempel) and truth approximation theory (Popper) turn out to be smoothly sythesizable. The glue between the two appears to be the instrumentalist methodology, rather than that of the falsificationalist.The instrumentalist methodology, used in the separate, comparative evaluation of theories in terms of their successes and problems (hence, even if already falsified), provides in theory and practice the straight road to short-term empirical progress in science (a la Laudan). It is also argued that such progress is also functional for all kinds of truth approximation: observational, referential, and theoretical. This sheds new light on the long-term dynamics of science and hence on the relation between the main epistemological positions, viz., instrumentalism (Toulmin, Laudan), constructive empiricism (Van Fraassen), referential realism (Hacking, Cartwright), and theory realism of a non-essentialist nature (constructive realism a la Popper).

Author Biography

Professor Theo Kuipers is the author of From Instrumentalism to Constructive Realism (Synthese Library 287, 2000). He is the leader of the Groningen Research Group `Cognitive Structures in Knowledge and Knowledge Development', which gained the highest possible scores in two successive assessments of Dutch philosophical research by international committees.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
General Introduction: Epistemological Positions	1	(16)
Four perspectives on theories	1	(2)
The four main epistemological questions	3	(5)
The main epistemological and methodological claims	8	(2)
Preliminaries and a survey of cognitive structures	10	(5)
Part I: CONFIRMATION
Introduction to Part I	15	(2)
Confirmation by the HD-Method	17	(26)
A qualitative theory of deductive confirmation	21	(6)
Ravens, emeralds, and other problems and solutions	27	(11)
Acceptance of hypotheses	38	(5)
Quantitative Confirmation, and its Qualitative Consequences	43	(30)
Quantitative confirmation	44	(11)
Qualitative consequences	55	(10)
Acceptance criteria	65	(8)
Corroboration as inclusive and impure confirmation	68	(2)
Comparison with standard analysis of the raven paradox	70	(3)
Inductive Confirmation and Inductive Logic	73	(20)
Inductive confirmation	74	(3)
The continuum of inductive systems	77	(2)
Optimum inductive systems	79	(1)
Inductive analogy by similarity and proximity	80	(3)
Universal generalizations	83	(8)
Part II: EMPIRICAL PROGRESS
Introduction to Part II	91	(2)
Separate Evaluation of Theories by the HD-Method	93	(18)
HD-evaluation of a theory	95	(8)
Falsifying general hypotheses, statistical test implications, and complicating factors	103	(8)
Empirical Progress and Pseudoscience	111	(28)
Comparative HD-evaluation of theories	111	(9)
Evaluation and falsification in the light of truth approximation	120	(6)
Scientific and pseudoscientific dogmatism	126	(11)
Part III: Basic Truth Approximation
Introduction to Part III	137	(2)
Truthlikeness and Truth Approximation	139	(34)
Actual truthlikeness	142	(4)
Nomic truthlikeness	146	(8)
Actual and nomic truth approximation	154	(11)
Survey of bifurcations	165	(1)
Novel facts, crucial experiments, inference to the best explanation, and descriptive research programs	166	(7)
Intuitions of Scientists and Philosophers	173	(35)
Conceptual foundations of nomic truth approximation	173	(17)
Truthlikeness and the correspondence theory of truth	190	(8)
Explicating dialectical concepts	198	(10)
Epistemological Stratification of Nomic Truth Approximation	208	(37)
Theoretical and substantial nomic truth approximation	209	(10)
Referential truth approximation	219	(9)
Rules of inference, speculations, extensions, and explanatory research programs	228	(8)
Epistemological positions reconsidered	236	(7)
Part IV: REFINED TRUTH APPROXIMATION
Introduction to Part IV	243	(2)
Refinement of Nomic Truth Approximation	245	(33)
Structurelikeness	246	(3)
Refined nomic truthlikeness and truth approximation	249	(13)
Foundations of refined nomic truth approximation	262	(6)
Application: idealization & concretization	268	(4)
Stratified refined nomic truth approximation	272	(6)
Examples of Potential Truth Approximation	278	(21)
The old quantum theory	278	(10)
Capital structure theory	288	(11)
Quantitative Truthlikeness and Truth Approximation	299	(18)
Quantitative actual truthlikeness and truth approximation	301	(1)
Quantitative nomic truthlikeness	302	(6)
Quantitative nomic truth approximation	308	(9)
Conclusion: Constructive Realism	317	(17)
Main conclusions	317	(3)
Three types of induction	320	(2)
Formation of observation terms	322	(2)
Direct applicability of terms	324	(1)
The metaphysical nature of scientific research	325	(2)
Portraits of real and fictitious scientists	327	(2)
Reference and ontology	329	(1)
Truth definitions and truth criteria	330	(1)
Metaphors	331	(3)
Notes	334	(13)
References	347	(8)
Index of Names	355	(4)
Index of Subjects	359