HPS100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Scientific Realism, Classical Mechanics, Cubism
9 Jan 2020
School
Course
Professor
Document Summary
History and philosophy of science lecture 5- scientific progress: philosophers often argue over the questions to be discussed, not the actual answers to said questions. Scientific realism: the history of science knows many episodes when a theory that had been accepted for centuries was eventually rejected and replaced by a new theory, the best example would probably be geocentric astronomy. This was the theory accepted for about 2000 years, but was then abandoned. You can"t really believe that any of your theories provide any description of the world. The only thing that remains for you is to use your theories. Scientific realism- selective approach: scientific realism: our best scientific theories correctly describe the nature of the mind- independent (external) world, two flavors of scientific realism: Since then, we"ve been through at least 4 different optical theories. This refractional equation has been in the mosaic all the time.
