PHIL 2301 Lecture Notes - The Natural Ontological Attitude, Instrumental And Intrinsic Value, Instrumentalism
Document Summary
Recent philosophical argument in support of realism tries to move from the success of the scientific enterprise to the necessity for a realist account of its practice. The arguments for realism fall on two distinct levels. On the ground level, one attends to particular successes; such as novel, confirmed predictions, striking unifications of disparate- seeming phenomena (or fields, successful piggybacking from one theoretical model to another. The second level of realist argument, the methodological level which derives from popper"s attack on instrumentalism as inadequate to account for the details of his own, falsificationist methodology. The antirealist may add onto the core position a particular analysis of the concept of truth, as in the pragmatic and instrumentalist and conventionalist conceptions of truth. The antirealism may add on a special analysis of concepts, as in idealism, constructivism, phenomenalism, and in some varieties of empiricism.
